All the Presidency's Men

Quickly, name three candidates campaigning hard to reach a position of power this year, one of whom is playing the Washington scene, but also pointedly distancing himself from it. No, we're not talking in the latter case about Howard "The Hindenburg" Dean, but about Iraqi Governing Council member and Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi.

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting story on how Chalabi and two other Iraqi officials, Iyad Allawi and Adnan Pachachi, are lobbying in Washington to advance their pawns back home in Baghdad. Said one U.S. official, with some irritation: "They're all campaigning to be president."

Indeed, and wasn't that one reason why the U.S. went into Iraq, so that more than one person could campaign for president–preferably in Washington?