"The 1997 elections in Iran were much more democratic."

[LynnTheDem]

"Moreover, as Swopa rightly reminds us all, the Bush administration opposed one-person, one-vote elections of this sort.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani immediately gave a fatwa denouncing this plan and demanding free elections mandated by a UN Security Council resolution. Bush was reportedly "extremely offended" at these two demands and opposed Sistani. ... Soon thereafter, Bush caved and gave the ayatollah everything he demanded.

The US objected that they couldn't use UN food ration cards for registration, as Sistani suggested. But in the end that is exactly what they did.

So if it had been up to Bush, Iraq would have been a soft dictatorship under Chalabi, or would have had stage-managed elections with an electorate consisting of a handful of pro-American notables. It was Sistani and the major Shiite parties that demanded free and open elections and a UNSC resolution.

http://www.juancole.com/2005/01/mixed-story-im-just-appalled-by.html

bush is such a total failure...and what's the name for someone who claims credit for himself when in fact he was opposed to every single position now being aclaimed???

Oh yeah...asshole.