Garance Franke-Ruta is a senior editor covering national politics at The Atlantic. More
She was previously national web politics editor at The Washington Post, and has also worked at The American Prospect, The Washington City Paper, The New Republic and National Journal magazines. At The Prospect she won the 2007 Hillman Prize awarded to its group blog, "Tapped."
In 2006, she was fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Mass., and in 2007, a summer fellow with The Iowa Independent, based in Des Moines, Iowa.
Garance has lectured at the Kennedy School, the Harvard Art Museums, Williams College, Wellesley College, Brandeis and Georgetown Universities, and taught in Georgetown's Master of Professional Studies in Journalism program. She also has made numerous appearances on national and regional television and radio programs.
Born in the South of France, Garance grew up in San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico; New York City, New York; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has resided in Washington, D.C., since graduating from Harvard in 1997.
Good afternoon, everybody. There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place. This is one of those moments. This is one of those times. The people of Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt will never be the same. By stepping down, President Mubarak responded to the Egyptian people's hunger for change. But this is not the end of Egypt's transition. It's a beginning. I'm sure there will be difficult days ahead, and many questions remain unanswered. But I am confident that the people of Egypt can find the answers, and do so peacefully, constructively, and in the spirit of unity that has defined these last few weeks. For Egyptians have made it clear that nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day. The military has served patriotically and responsibly as a caretaker to the state, and will now have to ensure a transition that is credible in the eyes of the Egyptian people. That means protecting the rights of Egypt's citizens, lifting the emergency law, revising the constitution and other laws to make this change irreversible, and laying out a clear path to elections that are fair and free. Above all, this transition must bring all of Egypt's voices to the table. For the spirit of peaceful protest and perseverance that the Egyptian people have shown can serve as a powerful wind at the back of this change. The United States will continue to be a friend and partner to Egypt. We stand ready to provide whatever assistance is necessary -- and asked for -- to pursue a credible transition to a democracy. I'm also confident that the same ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit that the young people of Egypt have shown in recent days can be harnessed to create new opportunity -- jobs and businesses that allow the extraordinary potential of this generation to take flight. And I know that a democratic Egypt can advance its role of responsible leadership not only in the region but around the world. Egypt has played a pivotal role in human history for over 6,000 years. But over the last few weeks, the wheel of history turned at a blinding pace as the Egyptian people demanded their universal rights. We saw mothers and fathers carrying their children on their shoulders to show them what true freedom might look like. We saw a young Egyptian say, "For the first time in my life, I really count. My voice is heard. Even though I'm only one person, this is the way real democracy works." We saw protesters chant "Selmiyya, selmiyya" -- "We are peaceful" -- again and again. We saw a military that would not fire bullets at the people they were sworn to protect. And we saw doctors and nurses rushing into the streets to care for those who were wounded, volunteers checking protesters to ensure that they were unarmed. We saw people of faith praying together and chanting - "Muslims, Christians, We are one." And though we know that the strains between faiths still divide too many in this world and no single event will close that chasm immediately, these scenes remind us that we need not be defined by our differences. We can be defined by the common humanity that we share. And above all, we saw a new generation emerge -- a generation that uses their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a government that represented their hopes and not their fears; a government that is responsive to their boundless aspirations. One Egyptian put it simply: Most people have discovered in the last few days...that they are worth something, and this cannot be taken away from them anymore, ever. This is the power of human dignity, and it can never be denied. Egyptians have inspired us, and they've done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence. For in Egypt, it was the moral force of nonviolence -- not terrorism, not mindless killing -- but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of history toward justice once more. And while the sights and sounds that we heard were entirely Egyptian, we can't help but hear the echoes of history -- echoes from Germans tearing down a wall, Indonesian students taking to the streets, Gandhi leading his people down the path of justice. As Martin Luther King said in celebrating the birth of a new nation in Ghana while trying to perfect his own, "There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom." Those were the cries that came from Tahrir Square, and the entire world has taken note. Today belongs to the people of Egypt, and the American people are moved by these scenes in Cairo and across Egypt because of who we are as a people and the kind of world that we want our children to grow up in. The word Tahrir means liberation. It is a word that speaks to that something in our souls that cries out for freedom. And forevermore it will remind us of the Egyptian people -- of what they did, of the things that they stood for, and how they changed their country, and in doing so changed the world. Thank you.Thumbnail image credit: White House
The Egyptian people have been told that there was a transition of authority, but it is not yet clear that this transition is immediate, meaningful or sufficient. Too many Egyptians remain unconvinced that the government is serious about a genuine transition to democracy, and it is the responsibility of the government to speak clearly to the Egyptian people and the world. The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy, and they have not yet seized that opportunity. As we have said from the beginning of this unrest, the future of Egypt will be determined by the Egyptian people. But the United States has also been clear that we stand for a set of core principles. We believe that the universal rights of the Egyptian people must be respected, and their aspirations must be met. We believe that this transition must immediately demonstrate irreversible political change, and a negotiated path to democracy. To that end, we believe that the emergency law should be lifted. We believe that meaningful negotiations with the broad opposition and Egyptian civil society should address the key questions confronting Egypt's future: protecting the fundamental rights of all citizens; revising the Constitution and other laws to demonstrate irreversible change; and jointly developing a clear roadmap to elections that are free and fair. We therefore urge the Egyptian government to move swiftly to explain the changes that have been made, and to spell out in clear and unambiguous language the step by step process that will lead to democracy and the representative government that the Egyptian people seek. Going forward, it will be essential that the universal rights of the Egyptian people be respected. There must be restraint by all parties. Violence must be forsaken. It is imperative that the government not respond to the aspirations of their people with repression or brutality. The voices of the Egyptian people must be heard. The Egyptian people have made it clear that there is no going back to the way things were: Egypt has changed, and its future is in the hands of the people. Those who have exercised their right to peaceful assembly represent the greatness of the Egyptian people, and are broadly representative of Egyptian society. We have seen young and old, rich and poor, Muslim and Christian join together, and earn the respect of the world through their non-violent calls for change. In that effort, young people have been at the forefront, and a new generation has emerged. They have made it clear that Egypt must reflect their hopes, fulfill their highest aspirations, and tap their boundless potential. In these difficult times, I know that the Egyptian people will persevere, and they must know that they will continue to have a friend in the United States of America.Thumbnail image credit: White House
The book, tentatively titled "Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It's Necessary, How it Works," is expected to be published in the fall by the Hill and Wang division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Image credit: Alex Hoyt, using Brushes on the iPad
Updated 6:24 p.m.
Married Rep. Chris Lee resigned Wednesday afternoon three hours after the publication of allegations in Gawker that he sent flirtatious photos -- including one where he was naked from the waist up -- to a Washington-area woman he contacted through the Craigslist personals section.
"It has been a tremendous honor to serve the people of Western New York. I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents. I deeply and sincerely apologize to them all. I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness," Lee said in a statement.
"The challenges we face in Western New York and across the country are too serious for me to allow this distraction to continue, and so I am announcing that I have resigned my seat in Congress effective immediately."
He earlier declined to comment on the story, telling Fox News Wednesday afternoon, "I have to work this out with my wife."
Lee, a Republican who represented the Western New York district adjacent to that of disgraced former congressman Eric Massa, was in his second term in the House. He was known for his work as Vice Chairman of the House Dairy Farmers Caucus and earlier this year sponsored a bill to stop the mandatory printing of congressional documents. Roll Call reported last year he was one of the 50 richest members of Congress.
Lee initially told Gawker he was the victim of a computer hack.
The full story can be read at Gawker.
Photo credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin (L) / Gawker (R)
Thumbnail image credit: Wikimedia Commons
As the uprising in Egypt moves into its second week, President Obama faces a moment of political peril as he seeks to support pro-democracy protestors and regime change without appearing to turn their fight into a U.S.-backed coup against a longtime ally, potentially undermining the legitimacy of whatever government succeeds that of President Hosni Mubarak and destabilizing relations with other U.S. allies.
As fire-bombs and gunshots flew in Cairo's Tahrir Square Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs condemned the violence as "outrageous" and reiterated U.S. calls for calm, saying, "The United States deplores and condemns the violence that is taking place in Egypt, and we are deeply concerned about attacks on the media and peaceful demonstrators. We repeat our strong call for restraint."
And while GOP leaders gave support to the president's handling of the intensifying conflict in Egypt over the weekend, Republican and conservative critiques of his course of action are nonetheless emerging. They fall along three main lines, though there are already so many subthreads of criticism that the entire waterfront of potential outcomes in Egypt is covered.
This means -- and this is the real domestic political risk for the president -- that critics will be able coalesce at some future date around an argument based on facts on the ground for pretty much any eventuality other than the best-case scenario: a non-violent and prompt transition to a freely and fairly elected government not dominated in parliament or elsewhere by the Muslim Brotherhood or Mubarak cronies.
Here are the main lines of criticism:
Obama is Jimmy Carter
This analytic framework for understanding Obama's presidency has been kicking around for a while, and doesn't just come from Republicans. (See Richard Cohen on "Obama's Carter problem" from last October.)
But the question Walter Russell Mead asked on Fox.com in early January -- "Is Obama the New Carter?" -- has returned with fresh force now that he faces a political crisis in the Middle East with seeming parallels to the Iranian revolution of 1979.
The Washington Times laid out the argument bluntly on Jan. 30: "As Egypt's regime totters on the verge of collapse, President Obama is looking less like Ronald Reagan and more like the Gipper's predecessor, Jimmy Carter. The turmoil in Egypt is markedly similar to the revolution that gripped Iran 33 years ago. Egypt may be to Mr. Obama what Iran was to Mr. Carter."
Rush Limbaugh also took this approach, saying that Obama is repeating Carter's mistakes in his handling of the crisis in Egypt.
This argument seems most likely to take hold if the turmoil in Egypt leads to either of two outcomes: 1) uprising/revolution followed by a democratically-elected government dominated by Islamists or 2) a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy forces by the lame duck Mubarak government, followed by rapidly-conducted elections marred by fraud that elevate one of his cronies into power and change little (except opinion on the Arab street about America).
Obama lost Egypt by failing to maintain Bush's democracy agenda
"I think the White House abandoned the democracy agenda because it was the Bush agenda," former senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) told ABC's Top Line Tuesday. "Had the White House been working more closely with the forces in Egypt, understanding that Mubarak could not continue on forever, that there had to be an alternative, an answer somewhere down the road, we might have been in a better position."
Elliott Abrams made a subset of this argument in The Washington Post Sunday in the piece, "Egypt protests show George W. Bush was right about freedom in the Arab world."
"All these developments seem to come as a surprise to the Obama administration, which dismissed Bush's 'freedom agenda' as overly ideological and meant essentially to defend the invasion of Iraq. But as Bush's support for the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon and for a democratic Palestinian state showed, he was defending self-government, not the use of force," Abrams wrote.
"The revolt in Tunisia, the gigantic wave of demonstrations in Egypt and the more recent marches in Yemen all make clear that Bush had it right - and that the Obama administration's abandonment of this mind-set is nothing short of a tragedy."
Jeff Jacoby echoed the critique in the Boston Globe Wednesday, writing, "If US foreign policy in recent years had consistently reflected Bush's freedom agenda' -- if prodding the Arab world toward a democratic renaissance had become an unmistakable American priority -- Egypt might already have made the transition to a moderate, humane, post-Mubarak government. But the freedom agenda didn't survive."
Of course, Bush also gave diminished support to his democracy agenda after the 2005 elections in Egypt, bitterly disappointing pro-democracy forces who were much weaker and more vulnerable at the time (as Jacoby notes). But that won't stop people from pursuing the line of criticism that Obama simply waited to long and was too accommodating to Mubarak, regardless of what happens in the months ahead -- and especially Mubarak is able to hang on to power.
Obama is handing Egypt over to the Islamists
This argument will only gain traction if free and fair elections are held in Egypt that bring the Muslim Brotherhood, currently banned from openly standing for election, to power.
Proponents include Daniel Pipes, who accused Obama of "myopically siding with the Islamists against Mubarak," former House speaker Newt Gingrich, and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.
"The president went to Cairo and gave his famous speech in which he explained that we should all be friends together because we're all the same people doing the same things and there are no differences between us," Gingrich said on "The Sean Hannity Radio Show" on Monday. "Well, I think there are a lot of differences between the Muslim Brotherhood and the rest of us."
Egypt could go the way of Iran, he warned, where revolution gave way to theocracy.
Pawlenty took a similar tack, saying the the emergence of an Islamic regime in Egypt is "a great concern," should a power vacuum develop. "Obviously we're at a precipice now where there's going to be change, and the infrastructure -- the political infrastructure of the country -- isn't well-prepared for the change and so it opens the door to mischief and manipulation and other options that are not democratic, that are not fair, not free. And it's in part because we allowed this vacuum to materialize underneath Mubarak," he told reporters in Des Moines Monday.
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If Mubarak is able to crack down on the Egyptian opposition sufficiently to stick to his present plan to step down in September, that means that there will be five Republican presidential primary debates before he hands over power -- debates at which would-be GOP leaders will hash out which of these lines of criticism they support.
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) consistently outpolled Barack Obama on questions of national security and foreign policy in 2008, just as George W. Bush outpolled Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on such matters in 2004. Obama won election because of his unprecedented campaign, record-breaking fundraising, compelling narrative -- and because 2008 was an economy election, not a foreign policy one.
One of the major challenges Democrats faced in 2010, according to party strategists, was their inability to break through with an economic message that resonated and reach low-information voters with facts about what was in the health-care bill.
Continued instability in Egypt and other Middle Eastern nations -- especially if it leads to increased oil and gas prices at home -- could contribute not only to a negative economic picture but threaten to transform the upcoming 2012 election from one fought on the economy to one fought, once again, on the foreign policy terrain that has proved so tricky for Democrats in years past.
Photo credit: John Moore / Getty Images
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