Is Bill Clinton replacing Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini as the “Source of Emulation” (Marja’a taqlid) of the leadership in Tehran? Posed by an Iranian satirist the question cannot be dismissed as a tongue-in-cheek quip on the new discourse developed by the Khomeinist establishment. In July 1980 the late ayatollah who founded the Islamic Republic told a group of university professors that the new revolutionary regime should not waste time on economic issues. “We didn’t give so much blood for economic reasons,” he boasted. “Economics is of interest only to asses.”