[thelist] setAttribute(someevent) in IE?

[sbeam]

Folks:
the following code works as expected in Moz but does nothing in Opera 
and IE. Anyone know how to acheive this?
===
<a id="thelink" href="#">Click Me</a>
<script type="text/javascript">
    document.getElementById('thelink').setAttribute('onclick', 'foo()');

    function foo() {
        alert('foo');
    }
</script>
===

thanks!
-- 

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