BY ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
1 hour, 56 minutes ago

See story.

Oh yea, this is real smart short term.

Let’s get this straight. Everyone agrees that this is a “liminal
moment” for Hamas, when its leaders are wrestling with how to respond
to their own changed situation.

Now under the direction of Rice, the US gives up our major
carrot/bargaining chip and the possibility of an active relationship
with Hamas, just when the leadership of Hamas is struggling to decide
how much to moderate its stance toward Israel, now that it has won an
election.

Do we not think some other hard-line governments will step into the
vacuum?  Do we not think Hamas has allies who can provide it
aid?  How do we think it has survived this long?

Now we send a signal to the hard liners in the leadership of Hamas,
at a time of internal struggle with change, that the hard liners are
correct.

Oh yea, this is real smart long term.

Now it becomes clear on the street in the Middle East that if democratic elections don’t go our way, we cut our aid…

The US favors a corrupt, notoriously autocratic regime
inherited from Arafat–who most of the new generation people despised,
by the way, because he was widely understood to be more interested in
his own power than in people’s welfare.

The US is not willing to talk with a regime that the new generation people see as expressing their political will.

Oh yea, this is real smart in a broader context.

Look around the world.  The US supports the Chinese as the
Chinese support Sudan and other incredibly repressive, and probably
genocidal, governments.

Indeed the US is now directly supporting the unbelievably repressive
Sudanese government, because of its “help in the war on terror.” 

Oh yea, business as usual. 

The US supports the worst regimes
on the planet, and then somehow expects to be seen as a lighthouse of
democratic values.

And THIS is the nation of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and thousands of unsung patriots?

At least, don’t call Rice a patriot.  Call her a traitor to our
values.  Call her someone who hates America.  That is, Rice
hates the real America that our forebearers founded and that millions
continue to believe in, and work and pray for every day.