Members of Congress are quite knowledgeable about the often-accidental nature of political elections. If not for a butterfly ballot in Florida, Al Gore may have been president and subsequently Barack Obama would perhaps not even be a U.S. Senator, for example. Or if not for the upset win of Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell, Mike Castle would currently be a U.S. Senator from Delaware, not Chris Coons.

So when a CODEL of House members visited Bahrain recently, one of their pleasant surprises was their meeting with their counterparts in the Bahrain parliament, who were just elected in September in similar accidental circumstances.  The members of Congress, who had been skeptical that reformers existed in Bahrain or that the parliament had actual power, learned otherwise.