A step in the right direction?

After days of debate Iraqi lawmakers chose a parliament speaker today.

Lawmakers broke days of rancorous stalemate Sunday and reached out to Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority for their parliament speaker, cutting through ethnic and sectarian barriers that have held up selection of a new government for more than two months since the country's first free elections in 50 years.

Of course the pro-war faction is declaring this a giant step in the right direction but it's probably more like a baby step on hot coals.

Deputies still face, however, difficult choices for Cabinet posts and failed again to name a new president -- broadly expected to be Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani. That choice and those of two vice presidents were put off until a Wednesday session that could mark a major milestone as Iraq tries to build a democratic government and civil society.

Once the president and his deputies are selected, they have 14 days to choose a prime minister, the most powerful position in Iraq's envisioned government hierarchy. That job was widely believed reserved for Ibrahim al-Jaafari, of the Shiite Muslim majority.

I truly hope that they can put enough of a government together that we can pull our troops out. I am waiting for Juan Cole to weigh in as he has been the one who has most consistently been correct.