WSJ: Iranian President's Setbacks Embolden His Domestic Critics

This is an excellent piece summarizing the deepening pit into which Crazy Ahmadinejad is digging himself.

The WSJ is subscription only, but if you PM me, I will send you one of their invitations to read it online.

Establishment Rivals
Fault Populism, Foreign Policy;
Nuclear Deadline Looms

TEHRAN, Iran -- With another confrontational moment in Iran's nuclear standoff approaching next month, criticism of the country's president at home is increasing. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose landslide victory in elections 18 months ago set the Iranian establishment reeling, suddenly faces a concerted effort by political foes to constrain both his populist economic policies and his public defiance of the West.

Many of Tehran's elite politicians and even clerics have long harbored concerns about Mr. Ahmadinejad, who ascended to the country's top political post from outside the traditional ruling circles. But the immense popularity he generated among Iran's poor and working-class voters kept many of his critics from speaking out or openly moving against his policies.

...But a round of elections late last year -- for local municipal and village leaders as well as an important national consultative body -- has undermined Mr. Ahmadinejad's political momentum and unleashed a flood of public criticism and moves to clip his wings. Candidates whom Mr. Ahmadinejad supported fared poorly in the elections, while key adversaries re-established themselves as fixtures of the political scene.

...Meanwhile, Hashemi Rafsanjani, whom Mr. Ahmadinejad defeated in the presidential election two years ago, dominated the voting for seats on the Assembly of Experts, the body charged with choosing a new Supreme Leader when the 67-year-old Mr. Khamenei steps down or dies.

Since those public votes, a drumbeat of criticism against Mr. Ahmadinejad's administration has emerged from within Iran's Parliament and among some senior regime officials. The president even found himself confronted by a crowd of jeering students during an appearance at a Tehran university campus, with a video of the incident distributed on the Internet3.

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WSJ - Subscription Needed -- see my note above

Re-read it, imagine Bush's name substituted for Ahmandinejad's, and shake your head.

With the neocons as the mullahs.

He was put on the ballot by the Supreme Leader, because he had a problem with Rafsanjani, who's actually pretty normal for a mullah. A boatload of reform candidates were stricken from the ballots, too. There was an election boycott. It was only after he did some sabre-rattling and masjid networking that his popularity grew amongst a certain subset of mouth breathing fundie conservative MEN. The women think he walks on all fours, frankly.

But other aspects of the article are right on the money, especially the situation between the GC, the Supreme Leader (who is sick and has been in and out of hospital), and the economic situation, which isn't good...

...Meanwhile, Mr. Rafsanjani, a longtime regime power broker and president of the country during much of the early 1990s, is spearheading a tentative movement to rein in Mr. Ahmadinejad, particularly his proclamations about Iran's nuclear program and denunciations of Israel. A large group of parliamentarians, including many who once supported Mr. Ahmadinejad, recently met with Mr. Rafsanjani. The gathering was seen as an important indication that support for Mr. Ahmadinejad is eroding.

A key question is whether Mr. Khamenei will continue backing Mr. Ahmadinejad. While the Supreme Leader has vocally defended the president and largely embraced his confrontational approach toward the United Nations Security Council on the nuclear issue in, Mr. Khamenei has done little to stem criticism of Mr. Ahmadinejad. He also has held several meetings with Mr. Rafsanjani.

Mr. Ahmadinejad's standing with Mr. Khamenei, and the broader attempts to rein him in, could be important in the run-up to a Feb. 20 deadline for the Security Council resolution passed in December ordering Iran to stop its uranium-enrichment program. The U.S. and European countries say the program has violated international rules and is aimed at creating a nuclear weapon. Iran says the program is peaceful and hasn't violated international rules.

The resolution included a limited set of sanctions targeting officials and organizations accused of involvement in the nuclear program. European governments have joined with the U.S. to broaden and toughen those punishments. The U.S. is expected to push for harsher sanctions if Iran doesn't stop its enrichment program.

Mr. Khamenei reiterated publicly recently that Iran wouldn't halt enrichment, but Mr. Ahmadinejad has been relatively quiet on the issue in public. Some European diplomats and Iranian analysts say Iran might agree to a temporary pause in the program after the country completes a research-level enrichment project in coming weeks, in an effort to keep the crisis from escalating further.