ARE THE PROTESTS IN IRAN DWINDLING?

The New York Times seems to think so:

Compared to the mass protests by hundreds of thousands of Iranians, the numbers have dwindled in the face of punishing reprisals by security forces on the streets. Mr. Moussavi urged followers on Thursday to assemble at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution, on the outskirts of Tehran.

But the likely response to the call was initially unclear after security forces overwhelmed a small group of protesters on Wednesday with brutal beatings, tear gas and shots fired in the air. Another protest called for Thursday by the second-place candidate, former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi, to mourn protesters killed in the demonstrations was called off, Mr. Karroubi said on his Web site.

The Times also reports that Moussavi hasn't been seen in public in a week and that the opposition claims academics who met with Moussavi have been arrested. Meanwhile, the hardliners are celebrating--but perhaps not the way they'd like to be:

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments, quoted on the semi-official Fars news agency, came as at least three Iranian newspapers reported that of 290 members of the Iranian Parliament invited to a victory party for him Wednesday night, only 105 attended, suggesting a deep divide within the political elite over the election and its aftermath.

It was optimistic, I suppose, to think that the protests alone were really going to topple the regime. At this point, it's a war of attrition and conversion--the question is whether popular discontent over the election has irreperably harmed the legitimacy of the government, even in the eyes of the insiders who run it.

-- A. Serwer