A qualified defense from Joe Klein:
Not that I have any illusions about Hamas. They’re violent, they don’t believe in the right of Israel to exist, they may not ever change.
BUT…they did win an election in 2006, an election we–not the Palestinian Authority and certainly not the Israelis–insisted upon. If the Bush Administration is going to push a "Freedom Agenda"–admittedly, a dubious proposition, especially the way that Bush has pushed it–then it has a certain responsibility to deal with the people who win the elections, no matter how odious.
The Dish 