Baghdad

DAN SENOR’S WORST DAY was Friday, March 5. Senor is the chief spokesman for Paul Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority. Members of the Iraqi Governing Council and their families had gathered for the signing of the new Iraqi constitution. The Baghdad press corps was assembled in full force for the ceremony, having waited restlessly for hours. And Senor had to tell the families, the media, and the world that the constitution was, well, still being worked out. Senor never made it to the podium in the briefing room of what was once Iraq’s convention center under Saddam Hussein’s regime. He was swarmed by reporters who had concluded that the whole process of drafting a constitution agreeable to the full 25-member governing council had gone awry. Senor’s explanation: democracy isn’t neat but includes a lot of rough and tumble. If you want neat, Senor said, Saddam provided that. But there would be a constitution, he said.

The writing of a constitution had indeed experienced a serious glitch. Some Shiite members of the council balked at a provision allowing 3 of Iraq’s 18 provinces to veto the constitution if voters decided against it by a two-thirds margin or better. The Shiites said this would let the Kurds alone block the constitution.