Their house is burning down around them, the wolf is at the door, the sky is falling, and oh, by the way, bloodthirsty terrorists are headed for Baghdad.

Do you think that matters to the elected representatives of Iraq's parliament?

Don't bet on it.

LA Times:

Hopes that Iraqi lawmakers could swiftly agree on new political leadership and halt a slide back into civil war were set back Tuesday when the first parliamentary session ended in an impasse after less than two hours.

Sunni Muslim and Kurdish lawmakers walked out of the chaotic session, the first since April elections, at which a parliamentary speaker was due to be nominated. That is considered the first step in selecting a new government, including a prime minister. Deprived of a quorum, acting speaker Mahdi Hafidh adjourned parliament for at least a week.

Sunni leaders said before the session that they wanted to know whom the largest bloc, the Shiites, planned to nominate for prime minister. After days of meetings, Shiite lawmakers have failed to agree on whether to back the embattled Prime Minister Nouri Maliki for a third term or nominate another contender, such as former vice president Adel Abdel Mahdi or the onetime CIA ally, Ahmed Chalabi.

The delay leaves Maliki in power in a caretaker role despite opposition from Sunnis and Kurds, who want him to step aside. Sunnis have blamed Maliki for running a Shiite-led dictatorship that has fueled the insurgency.

“We have to have a change and to have our demands be met for our people,” Bafar Ani, a spokesman for the Sunni bloc, told reporters after the session.

Shiite lawmakers blamed the Sunni bloc for holding up the political process.

“They have made the session confused,” said Ali Fayadh, a Shiite lawmaker. “We don’t know what will happen next.”

Will Iraq as we know it even exist in a week? The Kurds are going to hold a referendum on independence "within months," says the president. The Kurds have already given up on Iraq and are seeking to limit the damage to their autonomous region.

For the Sunnis, they are becoming increasingly isolated in Iraq and may see the de facto partition of the country as their only hope to get out from under the dominant Shiite government. Maliki has done all that he can over the last 5 years to alienate them. They could very well pay him back in kind.

" said Ben Franklin at the debate over the Declaration of Independence.