Trust-Busted

I forget if it was Hullabaloo or Washington Monthly (then CalPundit) who cited Machiavelli's advice re: exiles with regard to Ahmad Chalabi.

(short version: Machiavelli's advice: don't trust 'em).

Chalabi's performance in the election lends additional credence to this warning:

Unexpectedly low support from overseas voters has left Ahmed Chalabi -- the returned Iraqi exile once backed by the United States to lead Iraq -- facing a shutout from power in this month's vote for the country's first full-term parliament since the 2003 invasion...

With 95 percent of a preliminary tally from the Dec. 15 vote now completed, Chalabi remained almost 8,000 votes short of the 40,000 minimum needed for him or his bloc to win a single seat in the 275-seat National Assembly, according to election officials. Without a seat in the assembly, Chalabi would presumably be unable to obtain a post in the resulting government.

So much for all that money we threw in his direction.