Billmon: A Royal Pain

The Dauphin stamps his little foot and says "non":

President George W. Bush said he would reject any recommendation to partition Iraq along ethnic and sectarian lines, and he reaffirmed his confidence in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ability to unify the country.

Bush, in an interview on the Fox News Channel, said Maliki agrees that creating semi-autonomous states for Kurds and Shiite and Sunni Muslims would worsen divisions in Iraq, which has been suffering a surge of sectarian violence. The president also said the U.S. wouldn't impose any deadlines on Maliki.

His Majesty seems to be blissfully unaware that the Iraqi parliament, of which Mr. Maliki is the nominal head, just voted to do what he has expressly denied it permission to do -- with the full support of Maliki's Dawa Party.