This Helps

So Bu$hCo knows what he's doing? We just need to keep listening to the neocons in his head.

One of Iraq's most influential Shiite clerics rejected an American-backed proposal to isolate Shiite extremists in the national government, saying the country should govern itself with the help of anti-U.S. firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr, according to politicians who spoke with the cleric Saturday.

Shiite politicians met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in this holy Shiite city and then said they had thrown their support to al-Sadr, who demands a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

"The Sadr movement is part of Iraqi affairs," said Haider Abadi, a leader of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party. "We won't allow others to interfere to weaken any Iraqi political movement."

Ali al-Adeeb, another member of the Dawa party, said Shiite leaders, including the prime minister, will resist U.S. attempts to sideline al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia.