His Heart Went Hamas Hamas

On that "other forum," one of the respondents asked, "What do you want GW to do about the Hamas victory?" She followed up by posing the question, "Do you think GW's people are up to dealing with that kind of situation appropriately?"

So of course I replied...

You mean Karl Rove and Condoleeza Rice? No, of course not. They're morons who think they're geniuses, and they can be counted on to do precisely the wrong things.

But your initial observation is acute, and the little dictator certainly has his tit in the wringer on this one. His biggest problem is that he thinks elections and democracy are the same thing, i.e., he doesn't know what he's talking about. So now he's got his "democracy" and it's openly and blatantly anti-American. Who could have known?

Juan Cole, one of our most knowledgeable and moderately spoken experts on the Middle East, has commented at length on this election, and says in part:

The stunning victory of the militant Muslim fundamentalist Hamas Party in the Palestinian elections underlines the central contradictions in the Bush administration's policies toward the Middle East. Bush pushes for elections, confusing them with democracy, but seems blind to the dangers of right-wing populism. At the same time, he continually undermines the moderate and secular forces in the region by acting high-handedly or allowing his clients to do so. As a result, Sunni fundamentalist parties, some with ties to violent cells, have emerged as key players in Iraq, Egypt and Palestine.

Real democracy in the Middle East has about as much of a chance as a chicken in a coyote's den. The dictator keeps chasing this phantom as an article of faith.

I wish he was less worried about democracy in the Middle East and more concerned with it here, in what used to be the United States. What with domestic spying and eavesdropping, a policy of torturing one's enemies, prosecuting an illegal war outside the parameters set forth in the Constitution, and now creating a new class of criminals called "disruptors," democracy in the remains of this country is slipping away fast.

The dictator doesn't really have any idea what democracy is. Hamilton and Madison spread a lot of ink with their sharpened quill pens describing what it is and what they thought it should be in the Federalist. Alexis de Toqueville wrote a big fat book on our earlier incarnation of it in the 1830's. It's complex, multi-layered, and not a study for the simple minded.

But anyone who's marginally smarter than a brick and has passed a high school civics class can study it and understand it. Unfortunately, our Beloved Leader doesn't fall into that category.