Prez Election: Tidbits and Names

Item: If you’re wondering what Hariri-Aoun talked about in the midst of the gravest time in the history of the country, among other things:

Aoun and Hariri had agreed to break down the current list of presidential candidates into four groupings.

-One group includes the "official" candidates from both camps;

-the second includes candidates accepted separately by the opposition and the majority but who could be "vetoed" by the senior leaders if not agreed on

-the third includes neutral candidates without official backing from either side

-and the fourth includes two names: General Michel Suleiman, commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, and Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh.

So at least they agreed on the categories/boxes. Did they agree on who falls in what box? Or is that for after the crucial deadline of November 24?

Item: Patriarch Sfeir who had the brilliant idea of keeping Emile Lahoud in power in 2005, lest the prestige of that now crappy office be diminished, is at it again. Following his “2/3 quorum” blunder that undercut the best credible M14 threat, Sfeir now wants a candidate equidistant from M14 and M8.

Calibrating one’s position is everything. The election would be over today and Aoun would be president had he positioned himself 80% with Hezbollah, instead of the current insane 120%.

Similarly, Sfeir and Bkirki/Bkerke have blown their positioning by picking the middle here. For one, the middle is not consistent with what THEY want for Lebanon. For two, it further emboldens Aoun and Hezbo in their obstructionism. For three, they do not understand that for Hezbo/Syria there is NO frigging middle.

Parenthesis: Where the hell are the Orthodox and the Greek-Catholic religious heads? Their co-religionists often like to say “the Maronites screwed it up”. What the hell is their position? I mean besides the universal, but meaningless, consensus-lawful-deadline-peace-love-get-a-conscience blarney.

Finally someone, Carlos Edde’s National Bloc, criticized Bkirki’s recent statements for lack of courage (L’Orient-Le Jour Nov 9, link unavailable). Bkirki quickly responded with blah blah grave crisis and blah blah Sfeir’s wisdom (L’Orient-Le Jour Nov 10, link good one day).

Item: With a few days to go into the most momentous election in Lebanon’s history the politicians would have you believe that no names were ever been discussed. Given the dimness of the bulbs in question, that could well be true. However, for those who want names, other than the disqualified Aoun/NLahoud/Harb, here you go:

According to press reports the names tossed around: Amb. Simon Karam, ex-Minister Dimianos Qattar (Demianos/Damianos Kattar), MP Farid el-Khazen, Lawyer Shakib Kortbawi, and (hat-tip other tony) Maronite League head Joseph Torbay (Daily Star article, archived).

And now, little boys and girls, obviously those five are neither in box 1 nor in box 4 above. Can you fit them in the remaining two boxes?