not that anyone cares anymore. indeed, some shia are hinting that the draft constitution will never be debated or voted on by the assembly at all (HT: billmon):
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of the drafting committee, said lawmakers were supposed to meet later to ratify it. But Shiite representative Khaled al-Attiyah said there was no need to vote because "the job was done" when the draft was handed to parliament on Monday. Another Shiite, Nadim al-Jabiri, said there would be no vote on Thursday because the draft will be approved or rejected in a popular referendum on Oct. 15.but i thought the purpose of the assembly was to debate and vote on the constitution. all we've had so far is select members of the assembly meeting in side rooms to produce a constitution and deciding not to include whoever they don't want to include. now, there's nothing wrong with some degree of back room dealings. technically speaking, that's all congressional committees are. but the idea is that the whole assembly would then get the opportunity to debate and vote on the constitution. under the Article 61(A) of the TAL (aka the interim constitution) the "National Assembly" is charged with writing the constitution. and that means the whole assembly, not just the kewl kids who lock out of negotiations the people who they don't want to deal with.
but if the draft constitution is never submitted for debate and a vote in the national assembly, what exactly is the assembly for? why did iraq hold that election last january? was it just to allow bush to point to purple fingers at his state of the union address?
