Iraqi Officials Wage Political War in U.S.

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040205/ts_latimes/iraqiofficialswagepoliticalwarinus&cid=2026&ncid=1480

<snip>
The campaigns offer an important insight into where power resides as Iraq struggles toward a new government. At least until elections are held in Iraq, the United States will have influence over who will serve in any interim government — and over the process of creating such a government.

And even after the official return of sovereignty, support from the Americans — with their billions in aid and thousands of troops — will remain crucial.

Yet it is a delicate two-front campaign. While currying favor in Washington, no future Iraqi leader can afford to be seen in Baghdad as a lackey of the Americans.
This balancing act was on full view in recent days when Chalabi visited Washington as part of an official delegation.

At the invitation of the White House, he and two other Governing Council members sat proudly with First Lady Laura Bush as the president delivered the State of the Union address last month. But three days later, in a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, Chalabi gave U.S. officials heartburn by criticizing the Bush administration's plan for returning power to Iraqis as "a sure-fire way to have instability."

[bluestateguy]

1. What is a Chalabi?

Sounds like something you get at a delicatessen.

[leftchick]

2. Your are right! He does look like a ....

Stuffed Sausage!