Iraq has a brand new government today. The opening moves were discussed in the Gulf News on Tuesday:

Dubai: Under pressure from the Congress, Arab states and Sunni Iraqi leaders, the US administration on Tuesday set the stage for "major" political changes in Iraq.

The changes will be in "the structure, nature and direction of the Iraqi state," a senior American official in Baghdad was quoted by AP as saying.

He did not give out details, but the plan is expected to be high on the agenda of a 'crisis summit' which would be attended by key Iraqi leaders who seek to save the crumbling national unity government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki.

There is a crisis in Iraq, although changing your seats in the deck chairs on the Titanic Governing Council won’t really resolve the issue. Perhaps most seriously, the new alignment seems to have closed the door to one rather testy voting bloc:

[A] key player and one of the most senior Sunni Arabs in the government, Vice-President Tariq Al Hashemi, failed to attend Talabani's luncheon.

Al Hashemi, a critic of Al Maliki's alleged sectarian bias, said members of his Iraqi Islamic Party, part of the Sunni political bloc that quit the government, would hold meetings with leaders from regional Kurdish parties today before the summit, which will be held later this week.

It’s probably not a good idea to ignore the Sunnis in building a new government. They’ve been rather vocal in the past, and at that time they were supposedly participants in the government.

If you noticed, that report cited "the structure, nature and direction of the Iraqi state," as described by a “senior American official” whose initials are probably R(yan) C(rocker) – the ambassador in Baghdad. It seems the “boys” back home are getting a bit impatient as the historic date of September 15th draws closer. Mr Bu$h would like to include a little reality in his glowing report of progress. (OK – no snark please. What I mean is some sort of actual accomplishment.)

As noted by Laura Rozen, the AP has written

The Iraqi prime minister and president announced a new alliance of moderate Shiites and Kurds in a push to save the crumbing government Thursday, saying a key Sunni bloc refused to join but the door remained open to them. ...

At the news conference announcing the political accord, President Jalal Talabani and al-Maliki were flanked by the leader of the northern autonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, and Shiite Vice President Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

The four men signed a three-page agreement they said ensures them a majority in the 275-member parliament that would allow action on legislation demanded by the U.S.

That 275-vote majority will enable the Oil Law to be approved so that Mr Bu$h’s and Mr Cheney’s best buddies in Big Oil can get their payoff for their past campaign donations. Now all we have to do is keep that 275 vote majority together, and make sure we have enough armed troops in Iraq to keep them from nationalizing the industry as Saddam Hussein did.

Don’t worry. The oil will run out in 40 or 50 years, and we can begin withdrawing our forces then.

Ms Rozen closes her report with,

A cynical observer might predict: a rush of legislation being passed by the reengineered Iraqi parliament just in time before the September non-Petraeus Petraeus report, fulfilling several of the Congressionally-mandated benchmarks.

I must contact my lawyer, at once. I had the understanding that he had trademarked that “cynical observer” phrase for me.

UPDATE: Marc Lynch sees the new partnership as a failure.