This seems to me to be a very sensible proposal by Marina Ottaway on the Washington Post op-ed page today. One of the strengths of the Brahimi plan is that it has a version of the caucus system originally proposed by Bremer–this is a rough-and-ready way to get to some form of representation without the logistical difficulties of a full-blown election. The weakness of the Brahimi plan is that this process selecting a national conference comes AFTER the post-June 3O government is chosen by Brahimi and us. This means that the government will be chosen by fiat and the representative conference will have no input into it–so the post-June 3O government is likely to have the same legitimacy problems that have appeared to beset the Governing Council. So Ottoway suggests, Why not flip the process? Create the broadly representative conference, then have it select the government. This will give the Iraqi public a voice in the selection of the new government, while sticking to the June 3O deadline. Mickey Kaus has been agitating for quicker elections, perhaps by September. That just may not be possible, as a matter of logistics and security. This idea seems better in two ways: 1) It is unquestionably possible to carry out. 2) It brings some representation into the system even faster than the “faster” option Mickey has been touting. Under this proposal June 3O might actually MEAN something.