The right hates Mohamed ElBaradei because he was right about Iraq...

[babylonsister]

The Right's Real Problem With ElBaradei

The right hates Mohamed ElBaradei because he was right about Iraq, not because he's wrong for Egypt now.

Matthew Yglesias | February 3, 2011 | web only


It's no surprise that the growing movement for democratic change in Egypt is prompting some mixed feelings on the American right. On the one hand, the conservative movement has gotten deeply invested in rhetorical tropes about "freedom" and "democracy." On the other hand, the conservative movement is deeply hypocritical and mostly likes this rhetoric because it can be used as a club to wield against regimes that stand in the way of our geopolitical aspirations.

Hosni Mubarak's Egypt is, on this score, not an anti-American rogue state. It's a client, a lackey, an ideologically and economically exhausted regime eager to do Washington's bidding. Its largest opposition party is the Muslim Brotherhood, one of many religiously inspired, populist, and nationalist movements in the Islamic world with similarities to the religiously inspired, populist, and nationalist movement of the American right. But those similarities are visible only to the American left.

Something a bit funny happened on the road to revolution, however. An educated, Westernized, and liberal former international diplomat and civil servant named Mohamed ElBaradei has risen to prominence as a leading figure in the opposition protests. It's something close to a best-case scenario, right?

Not according to John Bolton, the former United Nations ambassador who denounced ElBaradei as "a dilettante." Or to Newt Gingrich who said ElBaradei is "a disaster" who will lead directly to a Brotherhood takeover. Fox News warns that ElBaradei has "no shortage of critics who say his sudden ascension could prove troubling for U.S.-Egyptian relations." Glenn Beck warned that "Islamacists," the "über-left," and "global elites" are working together to divvy up the world. "You can call it a new world order or a caliphate," Beck observed, and ElBaradei will be right in the middle.

more...

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_rights_real_problem_with_elbaradei

[elias49]

1. That's exactly right.

He had the temerity to tell the UN Security Council that rumors that Iraq had gotten uranium from Niger were untrue. (The Valerie Plame fiasco)
He went against the (American) grain by disputing that Iran was building nuclear weapons (as did Hans Blix before him)
The right wing just can't abide truth.

[bemildred]

2. That, and he was outspoken about it, he "didn't take direction well".

Seemed to think he was supposed to be some sort of independent expert or something.
:sarcasm:

[bemildred]

3. PS: I cannot believe they still give Bolton page space either.

He is one of the most turgid writers doing OpEds these days, and his pieces are littered with the most trite sort of propaganda cliches, strung together like colored beads on a string.

[madmax]

6. It's geared to the mentality of the wing nuts and it works. nt

[malaise]

4. Bingo but he has other problems

No young person in Egypt even knows him. He received a damp response in the square.

[Kurovski]

5. K&R. (nt)