Advancing Democracy

Recently, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "We do not negotiate with terrorists. We put them out of business." Today, President Bush dismissed any chance of the US negotiating with the Democraticly elected Hamas party, referring to them as a terrorist organization.

Of course we negotiate with "terrorists." We have been negotiating with two members of the "axis of evil" for the past year - directly with North Korea and indirectly with Iran.

If the Bush administration wants to "advance liberty and democracy around the world" and make progress in the Middle East, he needs to deal with reality, not the make-believe world of his failed NeoCon policies. His "pick and choose" approach to democracy - ignoring popularly elected leaders in countries such as Palestine, Iran and Venezuela - is counterproductive.

And by the way, what terrorists organizations have we put out of business? Certainly not Al Qaeda! In fact, President Bush gets the "terrorist recruiter of the century" award for creating the new terrorist organization Al Qaeda in Iraq!