Taking a Page From American Politics

Recently The Nation posted an interesting look into the machinations behind the Islamic Republic of Iran's upper political echelons. Specifically, it looked at the question of who might succeed Ayatollah Khameni as Supreme Leader:

People in the know in Iran report that the hottest subject of discussion among Iranian conservative leaders these days is the issue of who is to succeed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is said to be suffering from leukemia. The same individuals report that the person most likely to take Khamenei's mantle is Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the powerful chief of the Judiciary, whose tenure is scheduled to end within weeks.

The article suggests that Shahroudi's politics and jurisprudence are ambivalent, oscillating between a strict hard-line attitude and some progressive leanings, pointing out at the end that he is a critic of Ahmadinejad's power-grabs through the Revolutionary Guards.

An opponent of Ahmadinejad's hard-right politics...but still a conservative-leaning scholar - this portends a vexing future for Iranian governance and what direction it will take. Will Ahmadinejad have to confront Shahroudi for political leverage?

All of these questions are legitimate. However, I'm not going to look at the implications of this right now...I'm going to consider something a little more superficial and humorous.

The name.

Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi

Shahroudi

Shah.

Ring any bells.

Since Ahmadinejad has taken to completely plagiarizing American political slogans, perhaps he, or his organization, can consider borrowing a baseless political smear tactic from this election season's playbook, the "scary-sounding-name."

It's something that we in the States saw during the nascent stages of Barack Hussein Obama's campaign, posted on blogs when there was nothing else good to write about.

Perhaps Ahmadinejad can use his army of bloggers to start a new Iranian Political meme:

"Are we sure that can we trust Mahmoud SHAHroudi? What isn't he telling us about his past associations? Should we really have a Supreme Leader with a name so eerily similar to THIS MAN'S TITLE!

Obviously, he can't do it himself - it's always best to have some plausible deniability when resorting to hit-and-run politics. But this is Ahmadinejad - if he can deny the Holocaust, he'll have no trouble with something of this caliber.

I am sure that this new media weapon will be as successful against Shahroudi as it was against Obama.