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 LoomsTEHRAN, 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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