'Mini-me': the proof
The WaPo's Dana Milbank presents the proof regarding the amazing feat of political/rhetorical cloning by which Iyad Allawi became Bush's very own 'Mini-me'.
By the way, Juan Cole links to a Time mag piece about Allawi's longtime sponsors in the CIA having had and then later shelved a plan to "help" the former Baathist thug win the January election.
The piece seems to be referring mainly to plans to shovel money into Allawi's campaign. However, even if that particular plan has been shelved, you have to know that there are 1,001 other ways that an occupying power can stack the deck to rig an election, including by determining the security situation, stacking the election rules, etc etc. So the "integrity" of the electoral process is certainly still not assured.