Ramadan Politics: A Slight To Azerbaijan?

Lisa Margonelli, at her Atlantic Correspondents blog, points out that Azerbaijan's foreign ministry is miffed that its ambassador was not invited to President Obama's post-Ramadan feast, but to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's instead. I'm not up on the protocols of international invitations, so I'll leave evaluations of the slight to others, but Margonelli suggests we need Azerbaijan as an ally as relationships with Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus develop, along with oil pipelines. Then again, they recently cracked down on two talking donkeys (Margonelli explains).