Richard Holbroke sounds like Gene Simmons.

Listen to Richard Holbroke - the Obama administration’s point-man on everything Afghanistan - as I did on NPR this morning, and I was struck by how much his voice sounds like Gene Simmons’, the erstwhile God of Thunder.  I don’t know if Holbrooke can pull off the guttural scream in the chorus of Cold Gin, but he stands a fighting chance.

While the KISS army would be proud of him, I wish Holbrooke had qualified his enthusiasm for the election.  Consider this exchange:

[NPR's} Renee Montagne: What have you seen as you have traveled through the country these past days that would allow you to say that this election will be fair enough for most Afghans to accept it?

Richard Holbrooke: I’m not ready to judge the elections. All I can say is they’re really important. As President Obama has said, they are the most important event in Afghanistan this year, the first contested elections in Afghanistan’s history. What I’ve seen is democracy at work.

A lot of the techniques Americans are most familiar with — campaign rallies, negative advertising, positive advertising, one of the candidate’s supporters all turn out in a special color of blue at the rallies — this is all politics, Western-style, in a wartime condition. It’s just remarkable to watch. It’s exciting.

… Elections are rarely perfect. This election, in unprecedented wartime conditions, is certainly not going to be without its rough spots. It’s the integrity of the voting process in the middle of a brutal war. How many countries would have had the courage to hold an election under these circumstances? But Afghanistan is, and they should be given credit for it.

True, elections are vitally important; they are democracy at work.  Furthermore, holding this election in the midst of a war is impressive, and the Afghans deserve American support now because this election is the only way to legitimize the government’s power.

But also, an election is only one part of a democratic society, along with an accountable bureaucracy, a free press, and strict adherence to the rule of law.  In the exchange above, Holbrooke implies that the election is the end of the democratic process–rather than a part of it–to the detriment of those other pillars of a functioning democracy.

Why is this important?  If Holbrooke sounds like he’s too enthusiastic about elections for elections’ sake then that’s what his Afghan interlocutors hear, and it’s how they’ll act:  “Just keep the Americans happy with an election every few years; the money will keep flowing.”

Rather, Holbrooke could qualify his support for the campaign while emphasizing the need to bolster the other pillars in Afghanistan’s democracy along with the election.  And while he’s at it, Holbrooke might throw a jab in at President Karzai, by encouraging him to show up at the next presidential debate.

… and that’s something The Demon could rock out to.