Dutch government collapses over infighting

[tocqueville]

By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press Writer
20 minutes ago

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The Dutch prime minister said his government would resign Friday after his coalition split over the citizenship case of a Somali-born lawmaker.

The collapse of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's three-year-old conservative government is likely to bring elections by the end of the year, rather than next May as scheduled.

The political turmoil began last month when the immigration minister known for her hard-line policies threatened to revoke the passport of Somali-born lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali after the legislator admitted falsifying her name to escape an arranged marriage when she applied for asylum in 1992.

Hirsi Ali, 36, resigned her seat, but parliament ordered Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk to reconsider her decision. On Tuesday, Verdonk reversed it, having discovered a loophole: Under Somali law, Hirsi Ali's false name was technically legal because it was her grandfather's family name

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060630/ap_on_re_eu/netherlands_lawmaker_5

[Eugene]

1. Conservatives eating their own...

Vedonk's hard line stance against immigrants took down
the conservatives' poster girl against Muslim extremism.
Don't cry for Ms. Hrsi Ali. She has come to the U.S.
and now works for the American Enterprise Institute.

[xchrom]

2. may they cannibalize themselves into the grave.

conservatives everywhere are a blight on humanity.