CHALABI a candidate for new Iraqi PM?

My profuse apologies if this has already been diaried.

Just read this in the NY Times (via AP).  WHAT THE FUCK?

Leaders of the Shiite political alliance that won Iraq's election failed to agree on a single nominee for prime minister Wednesday, with the two candidates insisting on a vote by the alliance's 140 parliamentarians, officials said...

After meeting for hours with Shiite cleric and politician Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, members of the United Iraqi Alliance agreed to hold a secret ballot to choose between two former exiles, Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Ahmad Chalabi, said Ali Hashim al-Youshaa, an alliance leader who attended the meetings. The vote is expected Friday.

It's time to ask who is really calling the shots in the new Iraqi government.  A Shiite religious party wins the majority of votes, and they choose ... a convicted embezzler who lived the high life in exile for years?  Don't think so.

FWIW, isn't this exactly what Judith F. Miller "accidentally" blurted out on TV a couple weeks ago?