Saddling a new horse? Bush meets with Maliki rival at the White House

President Bush Bush Met With Iraqi Shiite politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the Shiite leader of the largest bloc in Iraq's parliament, the Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq..and a political rival of Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki.

Note the clerical garb and the name of a-Hakim's party to get a hint on where and with whom their symphathies aand loyalties might lie.

The president said he spoke with al-Hakim for more than an hour, and reportedly told him that the United States was not satisfied with the progress of efforts to stop the sharp escalation of violence in Iraq.

According to the president, they had a "very constructive conversation."

"I assured him that the U.S. supports his work and the work of the prime minister to unify the country....

Part of unifying Iraq is for the elected leaders and society leaders to reject the extremists that are trying to stop the advance of this young democracy," Bush said.

"We talked about the need to give the government Iraq more capability as soon as possible so the elected government of Iraq can do that which the Iraqi people want to secure their country from extremists and murderers," Bush said. "I told his eminence (Hakim is an Imam) that I was proud of the courage of the Iraqi people. I told him that we're not satisfied with the pace of progress in Iraq. And that we want to continue to work with the sovereign government of Iraq."

Whomever heads it..right,Dubbya? Nudge nudge, wink wink.