Everyone is picking on Ahmadinejad

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - 7:52 PM Share

The Iranian election is getting interesting. Last week, Reuters reports, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani of corruption. Now old Rafsanjani comes swinging back, accusing the little guy of "misstatements and fabrications." He has a bunch of clerics from Qom over in his amen corner.

Old Juan Cole has a good roundup of events relating to the election, such as a massive rally against Ahmadinejad in Tehran that wasn't broken up by the police. Among the stories he cites is one carried by the official Iranian news agency in which presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi calls Ahmadinejad a dictator: "I say so because he does not abide by the laws, so why should we not call him a dictator?"  

ALI RAFIEI/AFP/Getty Images

EXPLORE:ELECTIONS, IRAN, POLITICS
 
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RPM

1:59 AM ET

June 10, 2009

Sounds like fun!

Where does the line form?

The real question is whether a totalitarian democracy (try to get your head around that one) can vote a tyrant/dictator/demagogue out of office.

I guess we'll find out.

 

RPM

11:19 AM ET

June 13, 2009

not that anyone is paying attention to old posts...

but the results coming out of Teheran this morning would seem to be a clear indication that democracy died a quiet death yesterday in Iran - and that my hopeful thoughts were from 'cloud cuckoo land.' Damn.

The Axis of Evil is still evil?

 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008.

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