What do the pundits mean when they refer to politics as "Kabuki Theater"?

After posting the Ramirez cartoon in the post above, I began wondering about this term that one hears often.

From Slate; It's Time To Retire Kabuki; The word doesn't mean what pundits think it does.
"Judging from op-ed pages and talk radio, American pundits know a lot about Kabuki, the 400-year-old Japanese stage tradition with the Lady Gaga get-ups. Health care reform recently brought Kabuki to mind for both Rush Limbaugh—"what you have here is 'Kabuki theater' "—and New York Times columnist Frank Rich: "[I]f I were to place an incautious bet on which political event will prove the most significant of February 2010, I wouldn't choose the kabuki health care summit." For The New Yorker's George Packer, all the capital's a Far Eastern stage, and all its men and women merely players. "I looked for answers outside the Kabuki theatre of Washington personalities." "

In other words, pundits do not know what the term means, they just know using it makes them sound well-educated. Kind of like throwing in an occasional French or Latin word .
 Et tu, Mr. Krauthammer?