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...Awakening leaders attended the ceremony in Ramadi, a snub that Sheikh Natah says was intended as a clear message to the government. At heart is a power struggle between the Awakening council and the Iraqi Islamic Party, made up of Sunni exiles who are allied with the Shi'ite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. The party holds 36 of the Anbar council's 41 seats. Those posts are up for grabs if a slow-moving electoral law is approved by Iraq's bickering parliamentarians and the provincial elections that were slated for October take place later this year...
...Japanese Prime Ministers are organization men: it is not in their job description to stand out. But Yasuo Fukuda was not only colorless but headed a particularly lackluster administration. In the last few weeks, his critics have described him as "dead man walking" and "a lame duck." On Monday, he told them they wouldn't have him to kick around anymore and tendered his resignation...
Fukuda became the second Japanese prime minister in a row to throw in the towel with under a year in office (Shinzo Abe did the same last year) and the third to do so without holding a general election. Few prime ministers have been able to rise to the pop star status of Junichiro "the reformer" Koizumi, whose time in office saw Japan taking a more vocal role in global politics. But Fukuda was quitting for the sake of his organization, the Liberal Democratic Party - and he may have a strategy in mind...
...that needs to take place before Sept. 2009. Aso is a political golden boy, in spite of his 67 years, who is known for his love of manga or Japanese-style comic books. Some consider him destined for the top office, given his array of personal ties to former prime ministers and to the Imperial family itself (His brother-in-law is a prince, the first cousin of Emperor Akihito). That higher personality profile, both more elite and more popular, contrasts him with the likely new president of the DJP, Ichiro Ozawa, who, like Fukuda, is not popular. Indeed...
Winning the general election is key for the LDP. Divisions between the party and its main coalition partner, the New Komeito party, have been growing. New Komeito is upset at being saddled with an unpopular Prime Minister as well as disapproving of a few of his cabinet choices and wants parliament dissolved in to come up with a whole new government. The DPJ is also pressing for an early dissolution because, it says, Fukuda "threw the administration away" by resigning so soon. Seiji Maehara, vice president of the DPJ, says, "The LDP people hope Aso will be in power...