A SPAT IN TEHRAN – Another underreported story is that there is apparently a power struggle going on in Iran between the president and the supreme leader, two gems who compete for badness.  The New York Times reports:

The unprecedented power struggle between the two most powerful leaders in Iran deepened Friday, spilling out into Tehran’s public prayers where the mullah leading the service indirectly criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while the crowd chanted “Death to opponents of the supreme leader!”

That's what I like about the Iranian mullahs.  They take politics so seriously.  "Death to opponents of the supreme leader!"  No fooling around with demotions or throwing a guy out of the corner office.

The split started about two weeks ago after the president tried to dismiss the head of the intelligence ministry, the powerful government branch that exerts widespread control over domestic life. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, ordered that the minister, Heydar Moslehi, keep the post.

A real crisis of civilization.

Mr. Ahmadinejad then stayed home for 11 days, according to reports from Iran, engaging in a visible fit of pique that threatened to undermine the staunch alliance the two had forged since Mr. Ahmadinejad was first elected president in 2005.

Uh, would that be with pay or without pay?

Government opponents accuse the Intelligence Ministry of rigging the election that won Mr. Ahmadinejad a second term, a power Mr. Khamenei may not have wanted him to have again, analysts said. In another conjecture, the supreme leader’s son, Mujtabah Khamenei, who heads intelligence for the Revolutionary Guards, is said to have designs on the ministry.

The son also rises.

Whatever the reason, the supreme leader has made his wishes clear. This week, his office released pictures of a religious ceremony with Mr. Ahmadinejad conspicuously absent while Mr. Moslehi sat close by.

Well, we may soon not have Ahmadinejad to kick around any longer.  But Khamenei is just as kickable, and just as deserving of a kick.

May 7, 2011