I must say this: Hassan Fattah got it right in the New York Times today. "But the sense of bold changes that swept Lebanon after the assassination on Feb. 14 of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister, has largely been overtaken by backroom politicking, and the sense that little may have changed after all. Save for a few campaign events, little outreach has been made to the average voter. Instead, most crucial decisions have been made in backroom deals After the months of street rallies, international crises and political intrigue, the vote, for many, now seems an anticlimax. Lebanon's elections, like its politics, seem, inevitably, a labyrinth of sectarian division and time-honored tradition. The 128-member Parliament is evenly split between Christians and Muslims, while the country's demographic distribution is far different - though exact information is unavailable. No one here dares conduct a census." (A source in Lebanon tells me that Hassan Fattah has been wondering about the reasons for my previous attacks on his reporting. Nothing personal--I don't even know the guy. It is all about politics and standards.)