As the debate got under way in a hotel assembly hall here recently, the governor of this Shiite holy city tried to stay on message when asked about his party’s position on the hottest of the country’s hot-button issues – the American troop presence. “If the Americans feel they’re ready to withdraw from Iraq, they will withdraw,” the governor, Assad Abu Galal al-Taiee, a party official in the main Shiite coalition in the coming parliamentary elections, said to rival politicians and reporters. Full Story