The Edge: Obama and the Mideast: Is Paralysis Working?
The Edge is National Journal's daily look at today in Washington -- and what's coming next. The email features analysis from NJ's top correspondents, the biggest stories of the day -- and always a few surprises. To subscribe, click here.
Obama and the Mideast: Is Paralysis Working?
Everybody's got advice on the Mideast for President Obama these days. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., just back from a trip to Egypt, says the United States has no credibility there and won't have any unless Obama cuts off military aid. Foreign policy nabob Leslie Gelb, on the other hand, writes that Obama should make the unsavory decision to support the generals against the "undemocratic" Muslim Brotherhood.
Maybe everyone should remain as calm as Obama seems to be right now. Sure, nobody likes to see innocent people die, especially on TV, no matter what their political leanings. But looked at from a purely realpolitik, versus humanitarian, viewpoint, the bloodshed in both Egypt and Syria is not necessarily hurting U.S. interests. In Egypt, the military is doing the dirty work of confronting political Islam—which Washington would prefer not to do. In Syria, the main antagonists are both declared enemies of the United States, with Bashar al-Assad and Iran-supported Hezbollah aligning against al-Qaida-linked Islamist militias.
Humanitarian aid and calls for restraint? Certainly. But a more robust response may be precisely what Obama wants to avoid.
Michael Hirsh
mhirsh@nationaljournal.com
TOP NEWS
VIOLENCE CONTINUES IN EGYPT AS RUMORS OF MUBARAK RELEASE CIRCULATE. Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, on trial for the killings of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising, could be released from custody later this week, the Associated Press reports. Officials say that there are no longer grounds to detain Mubarak, 85, who is being retried after his original sentence was overturned. The news arrived today as 25 off-duty police were killed by Islamic militants, bringing the total dead to nearly 1,000 and stoking fears that the continued chaos could make Egypt a haven for al-Qaida. Egypt's military is also putting pressure on foreign media. The Obama administration on Sunday took preliminary steps to withhold financial aid to Egypt, but the State Department reiterated today that no decision on halting aid has yet been made. Read more
Destroying Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood could lead to an "undisciplined Islamic insurgency" in the country, Eric Trager writes in The New Republic. Read more
GREENWALD DOUBLES DOWN AFTER PARTNER DETENTION. Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has penned several articles using former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's disclosures to expose secret surveillance programs, said he will soon start publishing more stories and "write much more aggressively than before" after his partner was detained for 9 hours at London's Heathrow airport, the Associated Press reports. Greenwald also said he plans to make England "sorry" for detaining David Miranda, a Brazilian national. "I'm going to publish many more things about England, as well," he said. "I have many documents about England's espionage system, and now my focus will be there, too. I think they'll regret what they've done." Read more
The British government gave the White House advance notice of its plans to detain Miranda, The Wall Street Journal reports. Read more
UNEMPLOYMENT ROSE IN MOST STATES IN JULY. Unemployment rates increased in 28 states in July and fewer states added jobs than in June, suggesting the job market may be losing some of its momentum, the Associated Press reports. The numbers released today by the Labor Department also reveal that unemployment rates were unchanged in 14 states and dropped in just eight states—the fewest to show a decline since January. Nevada reported the nation's highest unemployment rate, at 9.5 percent, followed by Illinois at 9.2 percent. North Dakota has the lowest at just 3 percent. Read more
COMMEMORATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON. For the next 10 days Washington will be transported a half-century back in time to relive one of the most powerful and defining moments in American history, National Journal Daily's Mike Magner reports. The March on Washington brought more than a quarter-million people to the nation's capital on Aug. 28, 1963, for what many consider a key turning point in the civil-rights movement. The rally was highlighted by the "I Have a Dream" speech delivered by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, though few realized its historic significance at the time. The biggest event celebrating the 50th anniversary in terms of participants will be the "Realize the Dream March and Rally" to be held Saturday on the National Mall, and the main event will be the "Let Freedom Ring Commemoration and Call to Action Ceremony" at the Lincoln Memorial on the afternoon of Aug. 28. Former President Clinton, in a USA Todayopinion piece, urged Americans to be inspired by the forthcoming march. Read more
DOES IMMIGRATION REFORM STILL HAVE A CHANCE? ASK THE PARLIAMENTARIAN. Despite a deluge of constituencies and arguments supporting passage of comprehensive immigration reform, the prospect of the House GOP agreeing to vote on the Senate-backed bill remains bleak, Time's Alex Altman writes. But there just might be another way to revive the reform push: a rarely employed parliamentary maneuver known as a "discharge petition," which would allow a simple majority of the House to force a vote on a bill. The tactic discharges the relevant committee to report the bill and effectively circumvents party leadership. The last time the technique was used? In 2002, to leverage a win on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. Read more
Despite encountering some political opposition, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is working to promote the Senate-passed comprehensive immigration-reform bill in his home state, where immigration has been a heated topic for years, The New York Times reports. Read more
GOP MAKING SPANISH-LANGUAGE APPEAL TO LATINO VOTERS. Republicans are studying up on their Spanish in an attempt to court the rapidly growing bloc of Latino voters, The Washington Post reports. The push coincides with a boom in Spanish-language television that is beginning to rival more established networks. "We've been absent from the conversation with Hispanic media for so long, anything can set back that progress we've made in the last eight months, so we are aggressive, just like we are in mainstream media," said Nate Hodson, spokesman for the House Republican Conference. Republicans are aiming to discuss not just immigration on Spanish TV but budget cuts, health care, and economic issues, too. Read more
The GOP missed a golden opportunity this August recess to unify its messaging on immigration reform and are possibly making their Latino problem even worse, The Atlantic Wire's Philip Bump writes. Read more
BUSINESS TRIES TO TAME TEA-PARTY CONSERVATIVES IT HELPED ELECT. As Washington heads toward an autumn of fiscal deadlines, government shutdown threats, and the specter of default, the business community is reaping the whirlwind, National Journal's Jill Lawrence reports. Dozens of House and Senate conservatives, many of them tea-party populists, have been elected since 2010 with help from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, and other business interests. Now these same lawmakers are a chief reason for holdups and breakdowns on bills that traditionally are bipartisan, as well as on big issues where deals may be within reach. All of which puts business in an interesting squeeze—fighting many Obama policies tooth and nail, but also bemused and in some cases frustrated by the way some presumed congressional allies are handling their jobs. Read more
IOWA VISITS FUEL 2016 SPECULATION DESPITE MISSING GROUNDWORK. High-profile potential presidential candidates seem to be in Iowa every week this summer, but the speculative buzz ignores the reality that none of those possible candidates has started organizing a ground game in the state, the Associated Press reports. And some of the bigger names, like former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, aren't even bothering to visit yet. Still, many Republicans are looking to position themselves early on in Iowa in what is expected to be a crowded primary field (albeit with fewer debates this time around). "No one has started really building a campaign," said Steve Scheffler, an Iowa Republican National Committee member. Read more
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, released his birth certificate on Sunday, showing that he was born in Canada to an American mother, The Hill reports. Read more
TOMORROW
'72 DOLPHINS HONORED AT THE WHITE HOUSE. President Obama will honor the undefeated Super Bowl champion Miami Dolphins in a ceremony at the White House at 2:05 p.m.
QUOTABLE
"I would rather have anybody else be the president of the United States. Anyone. I would rather pick somebody from the phone book." -- Craig Mazin, on his college roommate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas (The Daily Beast)
BEDTIME READING
THE SMARTPHONE GENERATION? For students at the Newark Leadership Academy, the Internet is a valuable commodity, Jessica Goodman reports for Mashable, writing that for many, "accessible Wi-Fi can be more valuable than a bus ride home." Rachel Warzala, a Teach for America instructor at the school, estimated that approximately 90 percent of her students have neither Internet access nor a computer at home. She's worried that the dependency on smartphones—one student turned in an essay written on her iPhone—is impacting students' computer literacy. "They're all over Twitter but they don't know how to save a Word document," Warzala said. Meanwhile, the growing cost of data plans for phones is blocking some low-income students' online access in a world that increasingly requires the Internet. Read more
TODAY'S GRAPHIC
CHARTING BLOOMBERG'S IMPACT. As New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg nears the end of his third and final term in office, The New York Times offers an interactive look at the changes he has wrought. From a construction boom, to the rezoning of one-third of the city, to a push to make the city more friendly to cyclists, and the shifting character of a host of neighborhoods, the city has undergone a major transformation since Bloomberg took office in 2002. See it here
CHART OF THE DAY
MAPPING MEMBERS' RELIGIONS.BuzzFeed has broken down the religious affiliations of all 435 members of the House, charting them on a series of maps according to their congressional districts. The maps, based on members' self-identifications and statements from their spokespeople, display 31 religious affiliations, including 26 denominations of Christianity. Catholics are the most widely represented, with 136 members; 66 members are identified as Baptists; 45 as Methodists; 35 as Anglicans/Episcopalians; 28 as Presbyterians; 22 as Jews. The majority of the Catholic and Jewish members are Democrats, while the majority of Anglicans/Episcopalians, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Mormons and Presbyterians are Republicans. See it here
