State Dept. on Morsi Power Grab: Not in the Plan

The outworking of Egypt’s Arab Spring finally came full circle a few days ago when President Mohamed Morsi declared “near absolute powers” for himself, including immunity from judicial oversight. In response, secular and liberal forces in Egypt are joining hands to oppose him and the U.S. State Dept has released a statement in which the dept basically says this isn’t how things were supposed to work out. 

Here’s the State Dept. release:

The decisions and declarations announced on November 22 raise concerns for many Egyptians and for the international community. One of the aspirations of the revolution was to ensure that power would not be overly concentrated in the hands of any one person or institution. The current constitutional vacuum in Egypt can only be solved by the adoption of a constitution that includes checks and balances. and respects fundamental freedoms, individual rights, and the rule of law…

In other words, the bleeding heart liberals who couldn’t wait to see Egypt ripped from the hands of the pro-Western leadership of Hosni Mubarak, have now been brought face to face with the consequences of their revolution. And as it turns out, the light they were blindly chasing through corridors of darkness was actually the headlight of a train bearing down on them.

The State Dept. has supported Morsi at every turn in the road, and particularly on a financial basis. He has wisely figured out he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and that is exactly what he’s doing.