Liberal Talk Radio

Yesterday, exit polls in the Palestinian territories seemed to indicate a victory for the less-crazy Fatah party (damn exit polls!) and we all went to bed with our supreme Democracy Porn Fantasy intact. Today it emerges that the more-crazy Hamas party actually won, blowing that sweet dream to pieces (d’oh! bad choice of words!):

The Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas, which has said it favors the destruction of Israel, won an apparent victory in Palestinian legislative elections, officials said Thursday, reshaping the political landscape of the Middle East.

“We have lost the elections; Hamas has won,” said Saeb Erakat, a Palestinian lawmaker with the ruling Fatah Party. He said Fatah, which has held power since the creation of the Palestinian Authority, will now be the opposition.

Hamas and Fatah supporters scuffled Thursday outside the Palestinian parliament building when Hamas supporters attempted to raise the green Hamas flag.

Shots were fired into the air, observers said. The scuffle came as thousands of Palestinians celebrated the election results in Ramallah and Gaza.

Although official results are not expected until 7 p.m. (noon ET), Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has already accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, Erakat said Thursday. The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority Cabinet also has resigned.

A Hamas victory will mark the first opportunity for the group — which the United States and Israel consider to be a terrorist organization — to run a government. Hamas has operated a successful network of charities and schools in Gaza.

Erakat said Abbas will soon ask Hamas to form a new government.

Bush is speaking right now — he sort of sounds like Will Forte — and it’s coming off as something along the lines of, “The thing is, with democracy, see . . . it’s hard!” Does this change any of the wording in next week’s State of the Union? We’ll see . . .

Back in the real world, folks are speculating how this will turn out for Hamas and this is one of the more attractive angles so far:

It’s not clear anyone wanted this, least of all Hamas, who in assuming the administration of the Palestinian national authority’s creaking and often corrupt bureaucracy single-handed in a moment when its sole lifeline of European and other international support appears threatened, may just have stumbled into the biggest molasses patch the Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah has ever faced. Unlike the Lib Dems of 1985, Hamas did not go to its constituencies to prepare for government. It had prepared for a coalition, or possibly pristine opposition, but not this. [Link via.]

I’ll take it!