The last leader America handpicked for Iraq, Ayad Allawi, allowed Baathists to infiltrate his security agencies, was unable to prevent repeated terrorist attacks, and was soundly rejected by Iraqis when they went to the polls. One might imagine that Washington would learn from that error to be wary of endorsing Iraqi politicians. Alas, Secretary of State Rice blundered into Iraqi politics last week during testimony on February 17 before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Senator Domenici asked about a candidate to be prime minister of Iraq, Dr. Ibrahim Jafari. Ms. Rice basically endorsed him. “I was fortunate to spend some time with him just a few months ago, and I found him very intelligent, very committed to his country, and very committed to principles that I think we would find ourselves associated with,” she said. “I believe this is a now democratically elected government that we’re going to be able to work with and work with very well because he’s – he worked with us before, and I think he will continue to work with us.”

The problem is, at that point, the decision of who will be prime minister of Iraq had at that point not been taken. It still hasn’t been taken. The Iraqis are working it out. Dr. Jafari and another Iran-linked Islamic fundamentalist party have blocked a secret ballot within the United Iraqi Alliance party that won the most votes in the Iraqi election. It was ham-handed meddling for Ms. Rice to publicly endorse one Iraqi candidate at that point, instead of simply saying, “Senator, there are a great many Iraqi politicians with whom America can work well, and until the Iraqi people choose and install their government under their own laws, it would be unwise of me to get into commenting on the merits of any individual one of them.”

Ms. Rice’s blunder alienates other Iraqi politicians who are rivals to Dr. Jafari and who still may emerge in positions of influence. It binds America to an Iraqi politician who may or may not prove to be capable or committed to freedom. If Dr. Jafari does emerge as the prime minister, Ms. Rice’s comment could hurt his credibility with Iraqis by suggesting he was chosen not in a legitimate democratic election but in a process manipulated from Washington. If the Bush administration is serious about spreading democracy in the Middle East, it should understand that meddling in the formation of governments of fellow democracies is both inconsistent with the principles it is trying to spread and not a good way to make friends for the long term.