[bonesmccoy]

what is the likelihood of replacing the Ssudi monarchy with a democratically elected, representative gov't?

[swilhelm73]

Null in the near term.

In chasing off much of the best and brighest of Iraqis, Saddam created a democratically aligned exile community.

The Saudis, AFAIK, fall into two schools - the status quo'ers who are religious fanatics, and their opposition who are even more fanatical and allied with AQ.

We can prod the former group to initiate some reforms that can work in the long term though, and with the liberation of Iraq we have the leverage to force them to do so and they know it - see the recent local elections...