Death of an Ayatollah

Kevin Sullivan ponders what the death of Ali Meshkini means for Iran:

The Iranian government serves as a collection of checks upon checks upon checks. ... Ahmadinejad is without question the most ambitious, and most autonomous post-revolution president Iran has seen so far. He has close allies in both the Assembly of Experts and the Guardian Council. He is tied in with all of the Principlist factions in Iran, and shares their vision for a return to Islamic government, as opposed to Islamic republicanism ...

The time for power grabs in Iran may be upon us, but it just might be the skilled politician who walks away from this on top. An economy in decline, and a factitious government in turmoil, may leave a vacuum for Ahmadinejad to fill.  Whether he acts upon this for himself, or for his fundamentalist taskmasters, is irrelevant. The results would be the same, and none of it would be good for the people of Iran.