Ahmadinejad's big mouth may be causing trouble at home

"In one key race, centrist ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani overwhelmingly won a seat on the Assembly of Experts, thrashing a cleric seen as Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor."

Ahmadinejad 'thwarted' in Iranian elections: US

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looks to have been thwarted from keeping his ultra-conservative allies in control of key offices despite efforts to "cook the books" in weekend elections, the State Department said.

The elections for municipal councils and a powerful religious assembly saw Ahmadinejad loyalists suffer setbacks at the hands of more moderate candidates in a number of key races, including for seats on the Tehran city council.

"It would seem that they are not the results that President Ahmadinejad would have hoped for," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said when asked to comment on the vote.

"I think, despite the regime's efforts to cook the books in terms of an outcome, they seem to have been thwarted in that regard," he said.

While noting the high voter turnout in Friday's election, McCormack said there had been "some fundamental flaws" in the polls, "in which there were numerous candidates that were excluded from even running."

"So the people didn't have that choice to make," he said.

The United States has declared Ahmadinejad's regime to be one of its principle international adversaries for its alleged plan to develop nuclear weapons and his frequent statements that Israel should be "wiped off the map".

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In one key race, centrist ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani overwhelmingly won a seat on the Assembly of Experts, thrashing a cleric seen as Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor.

looks like all that talk about the people of Iran loving us and wanting a more moderate democracy wasn't completely wishful thinking!

Coupled with this story Iranian students heckle president and subsequently this story Iranian students in hiding after heckling Ahmadinejad:

Iranian student activists who staged an angry protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week have gone into hiding in fear for their lives after his supporters threatened them with revenge.

One student fled after being photographed holding a banner reading, "Fascist president, the polytechnic is not for you", during Mr Ahmadinejad's visit to Tehran's Amir Kabir university. At least three others have gone underground after being seen burning his picture. Vigilantes from the militant Ansar-e Hezbollah group have been searching for them.

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Protesters later surrounded the president's car, prompting a security guard to fire a stun grenade to warn them off. Four cars in the presidential convoy collided in their haste to leave. Mr Ahmadinejad's staff later insisted he had remained calm and ordered that the students should go unpunished. But some of those present say he accused them of being paid United States agents who would be confronted.

"He threatened us directly, saying that what we were doing was against the wishes of the nation," said Babak Zamanian, a spokesman for Amir Kabir university's Islamic students' committee. "After that, the students protested even more sharply, calling him a lying religious dictator and shouting, 'Forget America and start thinking about us!'

"We were chanting, 'Get lost Ahmadinejad!' and 'Ahmadinejad - element of discrimination and corruption.' You could see from his face that he was really shocked. He wasn't flashing his usual smile, and at one stage I thought he was going to cry. He told his supporters to respond with a religious chant hailing Ahmadinejad, but he was so shaken he was actually chanting it himself."

Another student said: "He was trying to keep control of himself, but you could see he was angry and upset."

It seems the time might be right for the U.S. to fully support, by any and all means, the movement away from the current phony figure headed theocracy into a more democratic Iran!

My optimism is obviously getting the best of me here but I won't be holding my breath!!!


Cross posted at The Minority Report