The Left Hand And the Right Hand

On the editorial page, the New York Times questions how helpful Iraq's new law, opening certain government jobs to Baath Party members, will be:

No one, it seems, has a clear sense of what the law will do. Some suggest it could actually exclude more former Baathists than it lets in — a sure-fire way to fuel political tensions rather than calm them.

Er... No one has a clear sense of what the law will do? Or is that nobody on the Editorial Page? Because if they ask their new Op-Ed hire, my guess is that he will tell them exactly what the law will do.

And now Iraq’s Parliament has passed a de-Baathification law — one of the so-called benchmarks Congress established for political reconciliation. For much of 2007, Democrats were able to deprecate the military progress and political reconciliation taking place on the ground by harping on the failure of the Iraqi government to pass the benchmark legislation. They are being deprived of even that talking point.

"And it's all good."