There are 275 Representatives consisting of the spectrum of Kurds, Shia & Sunnis as well as from fundamentalists to independents/secularists. When ratified, the bill would retire & pension all of the senior echelon and reinstate the lowers. Sounds like no Baathist will be left out unless they are criminals.

MSM says:

The bill was approved by an unanimous show of hands on each of its 30 clauses.
[SNIP]
The legislation can become law only when approved by Iraq’s presidential council. The council, comprised of Iraq’s president and two vice presidents, is expected to ratify the measure.

Juan says:

Parliament has been unable to get a quorum on several recent occasions, and barely mustered a quorum on Saturday, with 143 members in attendance out of 275. The new law passed with a narrow majority. The vote count was not published anywhere I could find it, but it could have been as low as 72.

So which is it and does it matter? Or do we move the goalpost again and say it’s no good unless it’s unanimous from all 275 Representatives?

As long as it’s ratified, it’s just another benchmark to check off on the to-do list. Heck, isn’t that how our Congress works, majority rule, horse-trading and all that jazz?

Iraq’s parliament voted Saturday to give jobs back to thousands of former supporters of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party who were fired after the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Did it give you any pause to note that this bill was actively supported by the Sadrists, and opposed by most of the Sunni parties in Parliament (whom, one might have thought, it was intented to mollify)?

You know I’ve had my beefs with Juan Cole in the past, but he seems to be spot on about this one. [See, also, the LA Times.]

I hate say it, but it seems that, when it comes to “good news from Iraq,” there’s a sucker born every minute.