I am quitting the Ayatollah Sistani fan club. After fighting for democracy and against fake caucuses he seems to have switched to blocking signing of the Iraqi basic law in order to support tyranny of the majority. After meeting with him, SCIRI delegates refused to sign the document as reported in the New York Times


"The [5]Shiite leaders are objecting to two parts of the constitution. They say they want to get rid of a provision that would allow a minority of Iraqi voters to reject a permanent constitution. According to the document now in dispute, the constitution will go before Iraqis in a nationwide referendum. If a majority of Iraqis approve it, it will become permanent, unless two-thirds of the voters in three Iraqi provinces reject it. In that case, the constitution would go down to defeat.

The Shiite leaders, who represent a majority of Iraqis, want to delete the provision that would allow the three provinces, called governerates, to defeat the constitution.

The Shiite leaders are also seeking an expansion of the powers of the presidency. Under the proposed constitution, the national assembly would choose a president and two deputy presidents, who would choose a prime minister by an unanimous vote.

Shiite leaders said they want to either increase the number of presidents and deputies to five, or they simply want to expand the powers of the single presidency. "

The 3 president, presidency was designed as the principal protection against tyranny o fhte Shiite majority.

I think this is very bad news. I suspect that Sistani's stated belief that clergyman should stay out of politics (made when Saddam Hussein was in power) had at least as much to do with Sistani's eagerness to stay out of his grave as with his true beliefs.