President Bush's State of the Union address next week will mark the anniversary of Elliott Abrams' Iran-Contra rehabilitation as deputy national security advisor in charge of US global democracy strategy.

Meanwhile, Freedom House, the US-based organization that promotes democracy, has issued its Freedom in the World 2007 survey on worldwide political rights and civil liberties.  It appears that Elliot Abrams, by all historical standards of the Bush administration, is doing one heck of a job.

The continued weakness of democratic institutions—even after holding democratic elections—in a number of countries continues to hamper further progress. “Although the past 30 years have seen significant gains for political freedom around the world, the number of Free countries has remained largely unchanged since the high point in 1998. Our assessment points to a freedom stagnation that has developed in the last decade,” said Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director of Freedom House....

On a global scale, the state of freedom in 2006 showed a modest decline from that of 2005.

Considering our man in charge of global democracy dodged Iran-Contra special prosecutor Lawrench Walsh's multicount felony indictment with a guilty plea to a misdemeanor count of misleading congress that ultimately won a BushXLI pardon, it was not a bad year's work at all.  We should all look forward to the applause during the SOTU show.