Ah. Iraq DELAYS constitution. Now, I get it.

The WaPo has gotten up to speed and headlines it correctly:

Iraq Parliament Delays Constitution Vote
Drafters Given Three More Days to Work Out Differences

By Ellen Knickmeyer, Jonathan Finer and William Branigin
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 22, 2005; 5:42 PM

BAGHDAD, Aug. 22 -- Iraq's parliament received a draft constitution late Monday, minutes before a midnight deadline, but the parliamentary speaker gave negotiators three more days to work out key differences before putting the charter to a vote.

The move by Hajim M. Hasani, speaker of the National Assembly, effectively gave drafters of the new constitution a second extension of the deadline for coming up with a document acceptable to the country's main ethnic and religious groups. After months of intensive debate, the original Aug. 15 deadline was postponed for a week, as negotiators sought to reach agreement on such issues as federalism, the role of Islamic law and the sharing of the country's oil wealth.

I can't understand why it took so long to cut through the spin, although it is possible the Post had it right from the start.

CNN carried the event live. Wolf Blitzer initially seemed to get it. He muttered something about the National Assembly missing the deadline to approve the draft constitution. Then, though, he tossed it to the correspondent in Baghdad who regurgitated Hasani's line about meeting the deadline while not meeting the deadline. After that, CNN was lost in the spin zone.