Vote Shmote Iranian Foreign Minister wants Bush to apologize for calling the Iranian elections a sham.
Kamal Kharrazi said the high voter turnout discredited Mr Bush's allegations that the election was undemocratic.
Mr Kharrazi points to the fact that 62% of the electorate cast a vote for the President.
Let's forget for a moment that there are accusations of voting fraud, because even if 100% of the people voted it wouldn't matter. The President and the Legislature have little power in Iran.
The person - the man - who is the commander-in-chief of the military including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, head of the intelligence and security services, and the only man capable of declaring war is not the President. No these powers are bestowed upon the Supreme Leader of Iran who is unelected and appointed for life.
The Supreme Leader also appoints every member of the judiciary as well as half the members of the Guardian Council.
The Legislature, or Majles, is elected. However, any legislation they propose must be approved by the Guardian Council which is unelected. Oh, and all candidates for President and the Legislature must be pre-approved by the Guardian Council.
Now, if President Bush was appointed for life and was capable of appointing every Supreme Court Justice and every judge at will at any time, and the Republican leadership could discard any legislative effort at will and could pre-approve every candidate than ran for Congress would you consider that Democracy?
Would you?
Regrets As predicted, Sen Durbin is trying backtrack on his remarks that the US is the modern day equivalent of Nazi Germany or Stalinist USSR.
What's more, members of his own party are running away from him as the many rank and file Democrats wonder "what the hell am I a part of?".
"That kind of rhetoric concerns me. There's no way you can make that parallel," said Richard Stallings, the Idaho Democratic Party chairman and former congressman. "There are real issues we should be discussing, and here we are making comparisons to Hitler and the gulag. Those statements are detracting from what the party and the nation ought to be talking about."
The problem is, of course, the Democrats aren't talking about anything. Starting with DNC chairman Dean, through Senate Minority Leader Reid, right down through Durbin, all they say is "Nyet", um, I mean "No!".
The other problem is that a significant number of the supporters of the Democratic Party support the sentiments expressed by Howard Dean, Harry Reid, and Sen Durbin. And they want to see more of it.
Jewish voters, long time supporters of the Democratic Party are pissed. The fact that Democrats have been losing this constituency slowly but significantly over the years is very likely a concern. It doesn't help matters when supporters of the Democratic Party passed out anti-Israel literature at Rep Conyers "Bush lied, People died" rally held at the Capitol building earlier this week, forcing Howard Dean to condemn fellow Democrats as anti-Semitic.
After pointing this out, Dean went on to declare the sky blue and water wet.
Still to come though is Dean calling fellow Democrats racists, but that might strike too close to home.
Democrats continue to alienate their traditional constituency in their blind hatred for the President, and have yet to understand that this is so. Preferring to believe that in the last election Republicans made gains because of the "values" vote, they neglect to recognize that Americans want solutions, not ankle biting.
That Americans believe they are good and just people who punish wrong doers.
Americans also believe they are the world leaders in Democracy and that while mistakes have been made, these mistakes are recognized, corrected and we move on.
To the extent that Democrats try to convince people otherwise is precisely the extent they lose constituency because it flies in the face of their experience.
Meanness is not a value American voters respect.
More later...
