Salon.com, NPR and the election that wasn't

As of this moment 12:44PM Eastern, Salon doesn't have a single article mentioning the election in Iraq. Not one. Instead they have a long review of Fisk's new book. As anyone who's read Fisk in the last, oh, 25 years or so, knows, he's not exactly in favor of America or Israel, at any level, to any degree. He's written screed after screed against America and lots of them have been so factually challenged that the idea of breaking down all the lies in someone's arguments is now called "fisking." (as all you Blogger types already know).
My local NPR station is doing it's year-end fund drive, so that may explain this next bit, but... They only had a single report on the election in Iraq and it had the wonderful question and answer:

"So would could this be called a fair and legal election?
Yes, I suppose you might call it that..."

MIGHT? Oh, yes, well, they went on to report that there was at least one report of a number of people at one polling station in the north who refused to dip their fingers in ink. Oh, well, yes, if 100 people out of 12 million or so tries to buck the system, then the entire election can be called into question, especially if it makes Bush look bad.
Seriously, what are these people smoking? How hard is it to just ignore Bush, look the Iraqi people in the eye and congratulate them on a job well done? Is even that too much support for Bush? Do they really and truly want failure in Iraq? I'm being very serious here for the moment. I voted as a liberal for years & years and I honestly thought that was the more intelligent stance and that the Democratic party most closely valued intelligence and critical thinking. Now... It seriously looks like they've got their heads stuck in the sand (or maybe up an orifice in their bodies) and they are trying to ignore reality. Forget about anything approaching critical thinking (and no, automatically taking a diametrically opposed position to George Bush does not qualify as thinking). Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain (or that wildly successful election), the Great and Powerful Oz (Democratic Party) has spoken. Oh well, I guess I'm still going to be voting for Republicans for a while. Maybe Lieberman can somehow take over the party. Wishful thinking.
Someone help me out here. The answer can't be this simplistic. From where I sit, the people of/on the left are thinking entirely with their guts & other organs instead of that bunch of grey matter sitting on top of their shoulders. Is that all? There must be more of an explanation. There must be.