“NOT EVERYBODY got everything they wanted in this law–that’s the way of democracy.” So said Paul Bremer, top American in Baghdad, at the signing of Iraq’s historic Transitional Administrative Law on Monday. This interim constitution sets the ground rules for Iraqi self-government after the transfer of sovereignty from the Coalition on June 30 through the election of a national assembly less than a year from now–the ground rules, that is, by which Iraqis will continue their experience of not getting everything they want, under long-craved conditions of freedom. What will they make of it? One straw in the wind comes from a group of Iraqis with more than average exposure to the process of drafting the new law: Iraqi journalists. A moving anecdote told by Ambassador Bremer’s chief spokesman, Dan Senor, speaks worlds.

Baghdad reporters are a fresh and eager bunch. They’ve been inventing a craft since the fall of Saddam. Some 200 newspapers, small and large, have sprung up in the free-for-all since the liberation. Those who attend briefings by the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council have followed the constitution-drafting process closely for months.