In the Democratic presidential scuffle over extricating the U.S. from Iraq, differences among the candidates have faded into the background recently. But the rivals are diverging on an equally incendiary foreign policy issue: the political instability in Pakistan.

The party's White House hopefuls moved swiftly to condemn Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf after he suspended the constitution and imposed emergency rule on November 3. Since taking early shots at the Bush administration over the crisis, however, the Democrats each have carved out niches on Pakistan -- most recently in a little-noticed exchange during last week's debate -- that suggest disparate approaches to the nuclear-equipped country believed to harbour Osama bin Laden. ...

Steve Clemons, senior vice president of the New America Foundation, hinted at a potential challenge for each of the Democratic candidates. A former senior US military official recently told Clemons that the Bush administration is taking steps to promote another Pakistani commander as an alternative to Musharraf and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Should the current president abandon his seemingly waning support for Musharraf, Clemons said, Clinton's response will be extremely telling.

"Does that become a political price for her [to pay] or become a political opportunity to endorse an alternative process?" he asked. "The narrative would be, this is a nuclear nation. We can't afford to let it go, we need new leadership. Just being about elections is not democracy; that's ballot-ocracy. That's what led to us getting Hamas in power." ...

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