HAMAS wins election in Palestine; the rise of democracies founded on Islam

The Bush administration called the Palestinian election a "historic and significant moment for the Palestinian people." But then turned right around and said this non sequitur: "We do not deal with Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Under current circumstances, I don't see any change in that." Thanks, Scott McClellan, for at least being consistent. I think he could be economically and efficiently replaced with a tape recorder loop and a Howdy Doody puppet.

There's an odd chimera of democracy and Islam popping up in the Middle East these days; first Iraq and now Palestine. Unfortunately, these democracies lack an essential ingredient: separation of Church and State. On the contrary, the political parties and Parliaments of these democracies are defined by Islamic factions. This is not what westerners would recognize as free democracy in the sense of the ancient Greek or 18th century American and French exemplars.