From Washington To Tehran, With Love

From the AP report out of Tehran today:

Iran's spy chief used just two words to respond to White House ridicule of last week's presidential election: "Thank you." His sarcasm was barely hidden. The backfire on Washington was more evident.

The sharp barbs from President Bush were widely seen in Iran as damaging to pro-reform groups because the comments appeared to have boosted turnout among hard-liners in Friday's election -- with the result being that an ultraconservative now is in a two-way showdown for the presidency.

"I say to Bush: `Thank you,'" quipped Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi. "He motivated people to vote in retaliation."

Bush's comments -- blasting the ruling clerics for blocking "basic requirements of democracy" -- became a lively sideshow in Iran's closest election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. And they highlighted again the United States' often crossed-wire efforts to isolate Iran.

Bush described the election as an exercise in futility because Iran's real power rests with the non-elected Islamic clerics, who can override the president and parliament. Many agree with that description of a regime that allowed just eight presidential candidates from more than 1,000 hopefuls.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the election shows that the country is out of step with democratic reforms in the Middle East.

"I just don't see the Iranian elections as being a serious attempt to move Iran closer to a democratic future," she said in an interview on ABC's "This Week."

But the harder the United States pushes, even with the best of intentions, the more ground it has seems to lose among mainstream Iranians, who represent possible key allies against the Islamic establishment, say some analysts of Iranian politics.

"Unknowingly, (Bush) pushed Iranians to vote so that they can prove their loyalty to the regime -- even if they are in disagreement with it," said Hamed al-Abdullah, a political science professor at Kuwait University.

But even many opponents of the Islamic establishment objected to Bush's tone and timing.

The president's words sounded too much like the pre-war rhetoric against Saddam, and many on-the-fence voters were shocked into action, said Abdollah Momeni, a political affairs expert at Tehran University.

"People faced a dilemma," Momeni said. "In people's minds it became a choice between voting or giving Bush an excuse to attack."

I've said repeatedly that it is far more productive to use our leverage with supposed allies---Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and others whose citizens can only dream of an election like the one Iran just had---than to try ham-handedly to influence the internal politics of a nation you've already designated as "evil." That's even more true when you have absolutely no moral credibility in that neighborhood (after Abu Ghraib you want to judge our elections before they happen?), your ulterior motives could not be more transparent, and---thanks to the loquacious and apparently still not totally discredited Michael Ledeen and Richard Perle, among others---everyone on the planet knows you haven't changed the playbook you used for Iraq.

Some conservatives in the U.S. happily cite every verbal outburst by Howard Dean as pushing "mainstream America" away from the Democratic party. Courtesy of our Oval Office, it appears the Mullahs just got a gift-wrapped combination of the "Dean Scream" and that election-eve Bin Laden tape---much to their pleasure and benefit.