Obama Silent In the Wake of Egyptian Prez Morsi’s Executive Power Grabs

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On Fox News Sunday, Arizona Sen. John McCain  called on the President to renounce Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s move to seize full control of the country through executive fiat.

“First we must condemn it,” McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told “Fox News Sunday.” “Then we can outline what actions might be taken.”

Morsi announced the power grab Thursday, just one day after he helped broker a cease-fire agreement in Israel between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas in the Gaza strip.

“This kind of power is not acceptable to the United States,” McCain said. “Renounce the statement and the move that (Morsi) just made.”

Rather than condemn the move, the Regime on Friday meekly asked Egypt to adopt a constitution complete with checks and balances.

“We call for calm and encourage all parties to work together and call for all Egyptians to resolve their differences over these important issues peacefully and through democratic dialogue,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Kumbaya.

McCain is requesting a stronger response since “the United State has leverage” in any effort to persuade Morsi to back down because of the billions it gives Egypt in financial aid, as well as forgiving its debt.
Mohamed ElBaradei weighed in, as well:
“I am waiting to see, I hope soon, a very strong statement of condemnation by the U.S., by Europe and by everybody who really cares about human dignity,” declared Mohamed ElBaradei, who is one of Egypt’s more visible non-Islamist politicians.
So far, no word from the President, but the US Embassy Cairo continued to epically fail on Twitter, as captured by Twitchy:
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo appears to have been given the keys to its Twitter account back after being given a long time-out, and weighs in.
Riots  continue in Egypt this morning, and they have spread to the U.S. embassy in Cairo. As Twitchy reported, protests started against the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi after he granted himself dictatorial powers.

Wow. As Twitchy reported yesterday, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo somehow managed to get the keys to its Twitter account back, after being thrown under the bus for its disgraceful apologism on September 11. Yesterday, the embassy tweeted, during protests and riots in Egypt that had spread to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, that the revolution was a “positive step.” Today, the embassy is continuing its pattern of being a textbook example of what not to do. After announcing it was glad that Mubarak is gone, the embassy doubled down on the idiocy.

Perhaps the embassy should read this piece by Commentary magazine.

The full implications of Morsi’s ascendency are not yet apparent. But we can draw a few rather obvious conclusions from these events. The first is this makes the region a much more dangerous place and peace even more unlikely. the second is that the much ballyhooed Arab Spring turned out to be an Islamist triumph, not an opening for democracy. And third, and perhaps most disconcerting for Americans, it looks like the Obama administration has shown itself again to be a band of hopeless amateurs when it comes to the Middle East. While President Obama shouldn’t be blamed for toppling Mubarak, this episode is more proof of the gap between his foreign policy instincts and a rational defense of American interests.

As you can imagine, the media has been all over this story…….(Just kidding…)

Newsbusters reports: IBD and WSJ Editorials Make Morsi Power Grab-U.S. Praise Linkage the Rest of the Press Won’t:

As a Friday IBD editorialpointed out, Morsi is now “using America’s stamp of approval to oppress his own people” (bolds are mine throughout this post):Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2012/11/26/ibd-and-wsj-editorials-make-morsi-power-grab-us-praise-linkage-rest-pres#ixzz2DMI1O0we

Obama Won’t Fight Morsi ‘Coup’ In Egypt

Cairo’s streets are filled with demonstrations against Egypt’s president. It sounds awfully familiar, but since the grievances are against an Islamist this time around, don’t expect “the people” to enjoy U.S. support.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who came to power as leader of the “civilizational jihadist” Muslim Brotherhood, is besieged with protests from his people after giving himself Pharaoh-like powers that include a ban on challenges to his decrees and the weakening of Egypt’s judiciary.

… Gee, isn’t Morsi a man of the people, personifying the “new beginning” of President Obama’s 2009 Cairo University “apology to Muslims” speech? And didn’t Morsi, just a day before his power grab, become the Peacemaker of Palestine by joining with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in forging an Israeli-Hamas cease-fire?

… Morsi has become just as tyrannical as his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak — except Mubarak was a staunch U.S. ally who maintained peace with Israelis and kept the Mideast powder keg stable for decades, while Morsi so reviles the Jewish homeland he won’t let the word “Israel” pass his lips.

… don’t expect White House press secretary Jay Carney to announce that the Egyptian people’s “grievances have reached a boiling point, and they have to be addressed,” as his predecessor Robert Gibbs did when Mubarak was on the ropes.

And don’t hold your breath for Clinton — or whoever her successor is at the State Department — to call for “an orderly, peaceful transition to real democracy.

… It took 24 hours for Morsi to take advantage of the prestige Obama and his secretary of state handed him. Now he’s using America’s stamp of approval to oppress his own people.

Today marks the fifth day since Morsi’s dictatorial power grab.

Seton Motley of the Daily Caller thinks he may have identified the reason for the Regime’s weak response, thus far:

Don’t Forget Obama’s Imperial Fiats

President Morsi has been busy.

(Muslim Brotherhood) Egypt President (Mohamed) Morsi Grants Himself Far-Reaching PowersEgypt’s president on Thursday issued constitutional amendments that placed him above judicial oversight….

Morsi also decreed immunity for the Islamist-dominated panel drafting a new constitution from any possible court decisions to dissolve it, a threat that had been hanging over the controversial assembly….

Sound familiar?

  • Obama Executive Privilege Claim ‘Like Setting Off A Nuclear Bomb’

  • President Barack Obama…blocked a House Republican subpoena of Justice Department deliberations over a botched gun trafficking investigation and set up a potentially explosive political confrontation just as the presidential election heats up.

  • House Finds Atty. Gen. Eric Holder in Contempt of Congress

  • The votes approved in the Republican-controlled House covered two contempt of Congress citations — one as a criminal matter referring the issue to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington for prosecution, the other authorizing the House to hire a special attorney to bring a civil lawsuit.

Ramifications?  Nah.

Eric Holder To Stay In Obama Administration Beyond First Term

The parallels between Presidents Morsi and Obama grow.

  • With two branches of power (Executive and Legislative) in his hands, Morsi has had repeated frictions with the third, the Judiciary, over recent months.

And our Pharaoh Obama?

Network Neutrality never passed Congress – the President just imposed it, in December 2010.  Ditto the Administration’s power grab of wireless cellular phone networks.

The Administration is being sued on both of these.  Having – like Morsi – usurped Legislative Branch powers, it is left to the Judiciary to restore legal order.

Etc. Read on as Motley expounds on the disturbing similarities of the two leaders.

Jay Carney is expected to face media questions about the administration’s response at today’s press briefing at 2:15 Eastern.
UPDATE:
Carney did not take the opportunity to make a major pronouncement about Morsi’s power grab.
He said something about Obama being “engaged with Egypt substantially”, but it’s a “process”.
He said Obama has not spoken with Morsi  since the cease fire.
Most of the briefing has been about budget negotiations.
UPDATE II:
Keith Koffler of White House Dossier was there for the briefing.

Carney: Egypt Having “Internal Deliberations”

by Keith Koffler on November 26, 2012, 5:41 pm

The White House today continued to soft-pedal its reaction to the power grab by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, failing to publicly pressure the Islamist leader to back off from a move toward one-Party rule long feared by those who question to Muslim Brotherhood’s commitment to democracy.

“There’s a process underway in Egypt,” Carney blandly told reporters today.

6 thoughts on “Obama Silent In the Wake of Egyptian Prez Morsi’s Executive Power Grabs”

  1. Sort of like ‘still under investigation’. Or when my kids were small and wanted to do something, go somewhere, wanted something that I didn’t want them to do, go or have, but had no real rational answer and wanted to stall, I would say ‘I’ll think about it’.
    Same rationale.

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  4. Of course he’s silent on Morsi. How can he criticize Morsi when he’s done the exact same thing by Executive fiat, here. He ran a line of crap on his recent Asian tour, calling for a “balanced approach to governing”. What bool*hit, he’s the very last one that is in a position to criticize Morsi. Having said that, I wouldn’t put it past him though. This clown has shredded the US Constitution by legislating by Executive Orders.

    He has usurped the US Constitution, Congress, ordered subordinates to ignore the Law, ignored and overruled existing US Laws. . . . . all in a Executive Power Grab. I just can’t wait to find what else he’s going to do in the next four years, as the republican party stands by and plays the see, hear or speak no evil game.

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