New WaPo editorial on Egypt (yawn)

It must be that time of the month again. The WaPo has a new attack on the Egyptian regime, and US policy towards it, in Mr. Mubarak's Rollback. This time, their beef is the "tepid" response to the cancellation of municipal elections. They think it's because Egypt is helping out with Hamas and all that.

So far, such calculations look about right. The election-quashing prompted only a tepid statement from Ms. Rice's spokesman, who said the administration opposed the postponement of elections "as a matter of principle" but added, in an echo of the administration's critics, that "democracy is not only about elections." In his State of the Union speech last month Mr. Bush said something different: "Elections are vital, but they are only the beginning." Egypt, he added, "should open paths of peaceful opposition that will reduce the appeal of radicalism." Is this what he had in mind?

Not quite my take, but close.