HASHEMITE RESTORATION UPDATE:

But if Jordan were fully to join the effort to topple Saddam, the prize could be tempting — and could also answer the question of who replaces Saddam. Until his assassination in 1958, the Hashemite King Faisal II was the head of state of Iraq. King Hussein of Jordan, father of the current King Abdullah, was Faisal’s cousin, and the heir to the Iraqi throne, Sharif Ali, lives conveniently in London. The return of a constitutional monarchy to Iraq could be a plausible replacement for Saddam Hussein — and how could the Arab world object to the return of the Hashemite dynasty, direct descendants of the prophet Muhammed?

Oh, I’m sure they’ll find something to object to. But this idea has advanced well beyond the blogosphere, where it made its first appearance.