Iraq has a constitution... God willing.

I guess it depends on what the meaning of the word "constitution" is.

Iraq has a draft constitution... except that it doesn't. There are, according to Hajim al-Hasani, the speaker of Iraq's national assembly, four little outstanding issues which the body will spend the next three days ironing out.

The first issue was that the alliance of Kurds and clerical Shiites wanted a de-Baathification clause that would limit the level of position that could be attained by members of the Baath party. This was opposed by a group of Sunni Arabs and members of the secular Iraq List headed by the former prime minister Ayad Allawi.

Two Federalism issues were also being contended. The Sunnis and the Allawi group were pressing for a two-thirds majority vote as being necessary for people to join together in a federal state. And they wanted to limit to three the number of current provinces that could join together.

Finally, the Sunnis and the Iraq List wanted to establish a two-thirds majority vote for approval of a prime minister and the presidency. The push for the two-thirds votes was a concession by the Sunnis that the Shiite-Kurd coalition had such an advantage in numbers that they could easily achieve a majority vote.

For those keeping score, the only little details left to resolve are:

- What kind of country Iraq is going to be

- Whether the Kurds and the Shiites will be able to form their own autonomous provinces of that country

- Whether Sunnis will be excluded from, or allowed to participate in, that country's government

- How the citizens of that country will go about electing their president and prime minister.

Yeah, that looks like a done deal to me. It's Miller time!

What is amazing is the degree to which the news media are parrotting the "we beat the deadline even though we missed it, and we have a constitution even though we don't" spin coming from the Bush-managed National Assembly.

Down is up. Right is wrong. Black is white.