SALON

Egyptian Protests

Meet Mubarak's American fan club

The pundits and politicians who are siding with the brutal dictator over Egypt's people

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    Ralph Reed

    The former head of the Christian Coalition and social conservative activist put up a blog post Wednesday, angered at ElBaradei’s comparison of the Muslim Brotherhood to American evangelicals. Wrote Reed: “I sympathize with the protestors in Egypt. They want democracy and freedom. But if Mubarak is replaced by ElBaradei in a government that includes the Muslim Brotherhood, the solution is worse than the problem.”

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    Wikipedia

    Thaddeus McCotter

    A Republican congressman from Michigan, McCotter last week released perhaps the most strongly pro-Mubarak statement of anyone in Congress: “The Egyptian demonstrations are the reprise of Iran’s 1979 radical revolution. Thus, America must stand with her ally Egypt to preserve an imperfect government capable of reform; and prevent a tyrannical government capable of harm … This is not a nostalgic ‘anti-colonial uprising’ from within, of all places, the land of Nassar. Right now, freedom’s radicalized enemies are subverting Egypt and our other allies.”

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    Wikipedia

    John Bolton

    The former Bush official is openly flirting with a 2012 presidential run, and he’s made several appearances on Fox News criticizing Obama for being a bad ally to the Mubarak regime. “I don’t have any doubt the demonstration in Egypt was triggered by what happened in Tunisia. But I also don’t have any doubt the Muslim Brotherhood has watched this. Today, after the Friday prayers, the Muslim Brotherhood’s supporters went out into the street, too, which explains the increase in violence. We’re in a very, very dangerous situation here,” he told Greta Van Susteren, adding: “We have a profound interest in the stability of the Israeli-Egyptian peace relationship. We’ve got an enormously strong relationship with the Egyptian military. Mubarak, while no Jeffersonian democrat to be sure, has been an American ally for 30 years. These are not things you toss away lightly against the promise, the hope, the aspiration for sweetness and light and democratic government.”

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    Reuters

    Rush Limbaugh

    El Rushbo has aligned himself against Obama on Egypt, and with Mubarak. He referred to the possibility of the Egyptian regime falling as “the wrong way” on a recent broadcast: “Now, right now, folks, terrorists do not have a seat at the table of power, the table of government in Egypt. If Mubarak goes, the fact is that they’re likely to have a seat. By the way, we’re being told that in exchange for Mubarak we need Mohamed ElBaradei. Now, there’s a good friend! Here’s Mohamed ElBaradei who did his best to tell the world, ‘The Iranians aren’t up to anything. There aren’t any nukes being developed in Iran.’ He was a little more circumspect about it than that. But, ladies and gentlemen, there are a number of things here to be somewhat concerned about. Egypt is an ally. They have been for a while. And if this goes the wrong way, you’re gonna have, if Mubarak goes down, you’re gonna have terrorists (Muslim Brotherhood) likely to have a seat at the Egyptian table of government, if not own the table.”

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    Leslie Gelb

    The former New York Times columnist and Council on Foreign Relations denizen has not been quite as explicit in his support for Mubarak as some on the right, but the message of his Daily Beast column a few days ago was clear: alarm that the Obama administration was not fully standing by the authoritarian Egyptian regime in its moment of need. Gelb wrote: “So, some administration officials are thinking that for all the risks of losing a good ally in Mubarak, it might well be better to get ‘on the right side of history’ … But those officials who think this way forget their history.” Striking a note of skepticism about democracy, Gelb continued: “Most certainly, most Arab governments friendly to Washington need to make reforms. But to do so at a moment of weakness, to be seen as bending to mobs, however peaceful and moderate they look now, could open up the floodgates — in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere.”

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    Simon & Schuster

    Pamela Geller

    The notoriously anti-Muslim blogger has distinguished herself with her sheer enthusiasm for the Mubarak regime. One headline on Geller’s “Atlas Shrugged” blog read: “GOOD NEWS: EGYPT ARRESTS MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD LEADERS.” She wrote in another post: “Mubarak has been a US ally for decades. We send three billion dollars a year to Egypt. And Egypt made a peace deal with Israel. But knowing Obama, he will throw another ally under the bus.”

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    Richard Cohen

    Only a 30-year Washington Post columnist could make a prediction with the absolute certainty Cohen mustered in his take on the protests: “The dream of a democratic Egypt is sure to produce a nightmare,” he wrote, decrying the fact that “Egypt, once stable if tenuously so, has been pitched into chaos.” Cohen is also fairly candid about his basic opposition to human rights as a U.S. foreign policy objective. This is how he closes the column: “America needs to be on the right side of human rights. But it also needs to be on the right side of history. This time, the two may not be the same.”

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    Wikipedia

    Mike Huckabee

    Huckabee weighed in on the situation in Egypt while on his 15th trip to Israel, joining John Bolton as the only other potential 2012 presidential candidate to support Mubarak. Huckabee said the protests “threaten the world” and continued, in an appearance at the Knesset: “[T]he events of the past few days in Egypt have created a very tenuous situation, not just for Egypt, not just for the Middle East, but for the entire world, and the destabilization of that nation has the potential of cascading across the globe.” Back stateside, he appeared on Fox and criticized Obama for not offering “at least an acknowledgment that [Mubarak has] been a friend these years.”

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    AP

    Allen West

    The Tea Party favorite and newly elected congressman from Florida appeared on Mike Huckabee’s Fox show over the weekend and defended Mubarak’s tactics in suppressing the Islamic movement in Egypt: “Over there, sometimes it does require a stronger hand to keep those radical elements at bay,” he said. “When [former president Anwar] Sadat let up, he was assassinated by the Brotherhood. That’s the biggest concern that I have … If you don’t keep these radical elements at bay, then all of a sudden they rise up and they take advantage of these turbulent situations.” West later sent out a tweet warning against abandoning Mubarak: “Obama shouldn’t demand the departure of Mubarak without knowing who fills void. No Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, or Reagan in Egypt.”

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    Andrew McCarthy

    A National Review writer and author of, most recently, “The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America,” McCarthy has been candid about his support for Mubarak. In a column at National Review, McCarthy even tried to justify Mubarak’s horrific human rights record by invoking a “terrorist threat”: “We have two principal interests in the region: peace and anti-terrorism. Say what you will about Mubarak, who has committed abominable abuses and stunted the growth of civil society — albeit in the face of a non-stop terrorist threat that is more immediate and existential than anything we face in the U.S. Mubarak has also kept the peace with Israel, and he has been a real ally against terrorists (as opposed to ‘allies’ who profess allegiance with us but do more to abet than defeat jihadism).”