President Khatami takes aim at Clerical Hardliners

[syzygy]

time magazine link

On Wednesday, Khatami broke with over five years of fruitlessly pursuing conciliation, issuing an unprecedented legal challenge to hard-liners monopoly on state power. Addressing reporters in Tehran, the president announced his plan to submit a bill to parliament ? where his reform policies enjoy majority support ? seeking to expand his executive powers under the constitution.

five years ! he's too nice a guy:|

at last he taken to the initiative. he has a small learning curve. mistakes can be costly but where's the glory without the risk, eh ?
he needs to reign them in but he may be too soft, nice and accomodating a guy to taste the can of worms he'll open when they
parry his move with greater judicary activism and social crackdowns.

Hardliners have exploited the security threat implied by Bush's rhetoric to further consolidate their hold on power ? sentencing reformist legislators to prison time, closing liberal newspapers, and meddling in foreign policy. Bush administration officials have publicly expressed doubt in the ability of Khatami's reform movement to break the grip of hard-line clerics, and the combination of external and domestic pressures may have prompted him to take the initiative

thank you bushie. seems our great leader conceded the obvious (khatami is good) only after he helped his adversaries (the baddies)
by lumping iran into his unholy trinity of evil. no great wonder that the clerics did not waste the political mileage of bushie's foppa by
exploting for all it worth and making life for khatami that much more difficult.