Democracy is messy

Well it appears that Donald Rumsfeld isn't always wrong. When he said "Democracy is Messy" he knew what he was talking about.
Iraq Parliament Extends Constitution Deadline

BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament agreed on Monday to allow an extra week for negotiations on a constitution after politicians asked for more time to reach a deal.

With less than 20 minutes to go until time was to run out at midnight (2000 GMT), parliament voted to extend the deadline for a draft constitution to be drawn up, by a week to August 22.


Negotiators on the committee drawing up the constitution had asked for even more time -- 10 days -- to settle disputes over a number of issues, notably the extent to which federal regions will have autonomy. But parliament's speaker proposed a week-long extension and the assembly approved this.

The delay is a blow to efforts by U.S. diplomats who have been shepherding the talks and to Washington's hopes that a timely agreement, reaching across sectarian and ethnic divides, could help undermine the insurgency among the Sunni minority.

The delay is indeed a problem for the Bush administration which had all it's chips on the new constitution but as Juan Cole points out there is another problem, the delay is unconstutional.

In fact, according to the Transitional Administrative Law, if the committee did not ask for an extension by August 1 (which it was pressured not to do by the Bush administration); and if the parliament did not approve the new constitution by August 15; then parliament should be dissolved.

This is the text::

"61 (G) If the National Assembly does not complete writing the draft permanent constitution by 15 August 2005 and does not request extension of the deadline in Article 61(F) above, the provisions of Article 61(E), above, shall be applied."

So what does 61 (E) say?

" If the referendum rejects the draft permanent constitution, the National Assembly shall be dissolved. Elections for a new National Assembly shall be held no later than 15 December 2005. The new National Assembly and new Iraqi Transitional Government shall then assume office no later than 31 December 2005, and shall continue to operate under this Law, except that the final deadlines for preparing a new draft may be changed to make it possible to draft a permanent constitution within a period not to exceed one year. The new National Assembly shall be entrusted with writing another draft permanent constitution. "

The language about changing the final deadline refers to the period after new elections, not before.

There was an upside though.

"Come on, this is a success," said Barham Saleh, a Kurdish minister in the interim coalition government. "We're not killing each other."

It will be interesting to see how the Administration and FAUX news spin this one. This is not what the neocons needed as support for their mis-adventure in Iraq is already in serious decline.