With all the respective panelists (see full list below) being more than on point, today's Meet The Press even exceeded our expectations for insightful commentary. However, the most disappointing [possibly read 'stupid' here] answers came unfortunately, or predictably, from the two United States politicians appearing on the program - Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) with regard to Egypt and Congressman Raul Labrador (R-ID) on Immigration Reform and Healthcare.
The most succinct and accurate assessment of what is going on in Egypt came from Jeffrey Goldberg who said:
The events of last week are a victory for progressivism in a kind of way and a defeat for democracy... Obviously the Muslim Brotherhood is a totalitarian party fundamentalist
party, anti-christian, misogynistic party. Let's not kid ourselves about
what they are. Their removal from power is good in that country for
christians and other minorities, but it also reflects a defeat for
democracy in the following sense. We know that this is not going to be
the last time the military intervenes in this process. And if there had
just been some level of patience on the part of liberals, the muslim
brotherhood might have imploded on its own accord. Now they're put in a
position to be martyrs and move more radically and possibly get involved
in terrorism like we see in Egypt.
He's correct but for one point: the liberals being more patient. If he was referring to liberals within Egypt, their patience was not required. The military's patience is what should have been required. And where Senator Menendez is so naive in his thinking is that he kept stressing an 'Egypt for All" moving forward in their political system. And possibly if President Morsi had called for early elections, a military coup (completely inexplicable that the Obama Administration would not call it that) would have not been necessary. The problem with that is, given Mr. Goldberg's correct characterization of the Muslim Brotherhood, new elections were not a possibility. But an 'Egypt for All' is not likely either. How are the Muslim Brotherhood going to be included? In their eyes, they should be controlling the government, for good or ill, so now the military says to them you can participate but you can not have power. Hmmm.... Sounds like the potential for another Hezbollah in Lebanon type situation, right? The Muslim Brotherhood will not go quietly into that desert night.
Senator Menendez supports the Obama Administration's efforts to assist Egypt in the formation of this new government. Way late to the party here. The Obama Administration's mistake was that when Hosni Mubarak was deposed, the United States stepped back, as Chuck Todd described. What they should have used the $1.4 billion in aid we give them as leverage to force the Morsi government to be more inclusive of the other political parties. No, we didn't do that, but now we're going to help set up a new government after a military coup. Shrewd moves the Obama Administration is definitely not making.
Robin Wright's statement that what happens in Egpyt will have major repercussions across the region so given that, those are the scenarios that the United States needs to contemplate and mitigate that as best as we can. However, going in their now as the country is falling apart (Dr. El Baradei's words), is not a mess we need and until they work it out internally we maybe shouldn't be diving into the deep end of the pool.
Tom Friedman, it should be noted, did make a good point in that Egypt is a pluralistic society that does not government to that pluralism, 'governing horizontally' as he called it, but it sounded too much like the pitch for his next book.
On Domestic Issues:
With the Obama Administration putting a hold on the employer mandate, Congressman Labrador had what he thought was more ammunition to denounce Obamacare, but he was incorrect in his assessment. He said that along with this mandate, nothing else in the law has worked, but that is simply denying fact. The Medicaid expansion for the states that accept is being implemented smoothly, a 25 year-old on his/her parents' health plan has saved considerably money, and individuals with preexisting conditions having the opportunity to buy insurance has added consumers into the pool. Granted that yes, Obamacare, isn't the best piece of legislation but unless you totally scrap employer insurance or private insurance for that matter, this is the direction we have to move. Conversely, and this can not be said enough, Republicans have not offered any sort of cohesive alternative proposal, and we can not continue on our current trajectory.
Then there was this exchange on Immigration between David Brooks and Congressman Labrador:
Not only did the conservative Congressman take a shot at Ronald Reagan (sacrilege in the party), but as Eugene Robinson correctly assessed, he's arguing for something that is just not possible. As we said in previous columns, even given some of the Senate Republicans' superfluous amendments, this bill is a worthy bipartisan effort, or as close as we're going to get. The long arduous process to citizenship that undocumented immigrants will have to endure is almost prohibitive in achieving, set by Marco Rubio. Or are we going to round up 11 million people and send them back over the border? Please. David Brooks provided you with the most succinct and accurate (ibid.) assessment as to why Republicans could support the bill. Sure, he got in a little dig there at the top, a bit of a passive aggressive one preemptively aimed at the Congressman, but he was correct.
Republicans fighting Republicans - you saw it right there in the clip. Speaker John Boehner won't bring the Senate bill to the House floor because he knows he doesn't have votes. You know he doesn't have Congressman Labrador's vote. Even on healthcare, Republicans are at odds as some conservative governors (see: Jan Brewer) are going to expand Medicaid as part of the Affordable Healthcare Act. Compromise within the party is now a toxic concept, let alone with Democrats, and until they work this out, we're all just treading water.
Roundtable Guests: Senior Fellow with the Woodrow Wilson Center, Robin Wright, Columnist
for "The New York Times" Tom Friedman, Columnist for "Bloomberg View"
and also with the "Atlantic" magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg (incorrectly listed on the MTP site), and from NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell and NBC Political Director Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd. Later - "The New York Times", David Brooks, Columnist for the "Washington Post," E.J. Dionne, " Washington Post" Columnist Eugene Robinson
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