it's called burying the lede

On its face, today's headline in the NYTimes that Bush administration officials are pressuring the Palestinian Authority to bar Hamas members from standing for election makes obvious the contradiction between the rhetoric of democracy the administration pushes and the bare fact that they won't allow fair elections in many Middle East states, where groups openly hostile to U.S. interests would win. No surprise there, nor in that the U.S. is unwilling to sacrifice its privileged position so that other people can drink the sweet koolaid of self-determination.

But that's just so much window dressing. The bottom of the piece casually reminds us why dickering over candidates in that terrain isn't really that important.

In addition, as a practical matter, [an unnamed State Department official] said, action by the Palestinian Authority would make it easier to secure Israeli cooperation in easing conditions for the elections to be held. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon jolted the administration last month when he said Israel would not help the elections if Hamas were in the running.

Right, I forgot. Somebody else has to approve your elections before you can have them.