Yo Yo Aristide

After Rene Preval was declared president of Haiti, and the threatened second round run-off was avoided, A.C. at so.to.say posed a number of questions, one of which was,

will he bring Aristide back to Haiti out of exile, despite opposition of global powers?

Well, it looks like we have an answer. Despite continued Washington meddling and an insistence that Aristide not be allowed to return to Haiti, Preval has said that Aristide is welcome to come back should he choose to do so.

The US State Department says that Aristide's return "does not serve a useful purpose." And? The man is Haitian. It's his home. Of course, by "useful purpose," State department spokesman Adam Ereli really means that is serves no useful purpose to the Bush administration.

It also must be somewhat embarassing to have backed a coup against Aristide, for a second time, only to see the same guy back in the fold again. They must be wondering how many times they can get away with this. What they should be wondering is whether their support of an anti-democratic Haitian coup-mill is worthwhile because it doesn't seem to be working too well. Two years and many dead civilians later, Aristide is back on home soil.

All of which is about par for this White House.