Jo Fish draws our attention to this NYT article:

Iraqi census officials devised a detailed plan to count the country’s entire population next summer and prepare a voter roll that would open the way to national elections in September. But American officials say they rejected the idea, and the Iraqi Governing Council members say they never saw the plan to consider it.

The practicality of national elections is now the subject of intense debate among Iraqi and American officials, who are trying to move forward on a plan to give Iraqis sovereignty next summer. As the American occupation officials rejected the plan to compile a voter roll rapidly, they also argued to the Governing Council that the lack of a voter roll meant national elections were impractical. [Emphasis added]

Mr. Fish refers to the Bush plan as “Select-a-Puppet” which seems like a good way of putting it. Then again, we’d imagine the puppet has already been selected, the only thing left to determine is how to appoint it.