Before anyone dare say Vietnam, the president, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld drag in the historian David McCullough and liken 2005 in Iraq to 1776 in America -- and, by implication, the original George W. to ours. Before you know it, Ahmad Chalabi will be rehabilitated as Ben Franklin.

--Frank Rich in today's New York Times

Chalabi as an Iraqi Ben Franklin? Even the Bush administration knows America won't swallow that now, but I have the feeling that this Washington Post article from Thursday is a search for a new variant on that formula:

...it's worth listening to a young Iraqi Shiite cleric named Ammar Hakim. He speaks for the people who arguably have gained the most from America's troubled mission in Iraq and, to a surprising extent, still believe in it....

I met Hakim a week ago during his first visit to the United States. He made quite a sight when he arrived for breakfast, dressed in his black turban and flowing clerical robes. Some of the other guests in the dining room of the Watergate Hotel seemed to back away a bit, as if they feared the visiting mullah might explode. I'm told he drew some stares when he toured the Pentagon dressed in the same garb.

Hakim is a remarkably articulate man, with the spark of curiosity in his eyes and a presence that we in the United States would call "star quality." Whoever had the good sense to invite him here -- where he met with officials at the State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council -- should get a pay raise....

If I could sum up his theme in one sentence, it is that the United States should continue to bet on democracy in Iraq -- which of necessity means relying on Iraq's Shiite majority and the mullahs who speak for it....

I told Hakim through an interpreter that many Americans were close to despair about Iraq.... Here's how Hakim responded: "The truth is, this is a grand plan, and any time you are engaged in a grand plan, you will face difficulties. But we will overcome them. We are now in the final quarter of these difficulties." I'm not sure I agree with him that the troubles are nearly over, but I must say that I was moved by his answer....

Hakim told me ... that he hoped future generations of Iraqis would look at their current leaders with the same gratitude that Americans feel when they regard Lincoln....

A charismatic conservative Islamic cleric -- hey, that's sort of like Ben Franklin, right? I mean, they both make an impression when they walk into a room; they both have "star quality." Come on, please, swallow this -- conservative clerics are really OK. They're no more radical, in their conservative cleric way, than our Founding Fathers were. And he invokes Lincoln! Isn't that cool?

No? Hey, come on, work with me here....