About those Saudi Elections

Andrew Stuttaford at NRO's The Corner:

At the risk of damaging his credibility in the liberal street with a favorable mention in our corner of iniquity, Matt Yglesias has, I think, read the Saudi elections just right:

“…The decision to prohibit political parties was a boon to the Islamists since they have, in the mosques, an institutional network of support that's legal even in the absence of political parties. To make a long story short, Abdullah did everything possible to ensure that Islamists would win the election. He also managed to ensure that no matter what the result, he wouldn't lose any real power. Upshot -- articles in the western press calling him "reform-minded" and that build the case for him not to engage in further democratization since, as we just saw, Abdullah's earnest efforts at reform are counterproductive since they just bring Islamists to power. It's everything an absolute monarch could dream of in an election. He keeps absolute power, gets credit for being a reformer, and gets off the hook in terms of pressure to reform.”

No kidding. That's no way to reform at all. It's a recipe for continued theocratic monarchical rule with a penchant for anti-Americanism.