Ahmadinejad Defying Khamene'i?

It looks as if Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is going to fight on for his choice of Vice President, despite his candidate's rejection by Supreme Leader ‘Ali Khamene'i. This would seem to be a case of the hardliners who backed Ahmadinejad in the election crisis trying to impose their own choices on the President.

This will probably resolve itself, but the fact that the President is showing some independence here (and that it is he who has chosen a "moderate" candidate that the hardliners object to) is worth noting. It's also a reminder that the events of the past month-plus have opened fissures along several of the fault-lines of the clerical system, not just between the reformers and the hard-line camp, but apparently within the hard-line camp itself.