The Superior Insights And Knowledge Of Our Leaders

Okay, seven years in in running -- excuse me, having an involvement at the higher levels of foreign policy-making -- the administration's foreign policy, does this woman really first realize this crap now? When did anyone really believe Russia is a democracy or that its leaders want it to be a democracy? It certainly has done a fabulous job of creating a plutocracy.

I mean, on one hand, one hopes this is just some silly public pronouncement, a sending of a message, or maybe just a show for the base, as it were... I don't know....

The Russian government under Vladimir Putin has amassed so much central authority that the power-grab may undermine Moscow's commitment to democracy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday.

"In any country, if you don't have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development," Rice told reporters after meeting with human-rights activists.

"I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the Duma," said Rice, referring to the Russian parliament.

Or as it was put at TalkingPointsMemo, is there not a bit of irony here?