To post-election turmoil in Tehran, Washington reaction is shaping up as a classic round of mock macho, ranging from John McCain’s twittering down to Eric Cantor‘s schoolyard taunting of the Obama Administration.
Faced with the unknowable depth, duration and consequences of opposition to Ahmadinejad’s “victory,” the White House is limiting itself to expressions of concern and disapproval, but carefully avoiding an active role in fomenting discord in Iran.
That’s not good enough for today’s Republicans in an age where the rule that politics stops at the water’s edge is only a memory.
On the Today Show, McCain insists that Iran “should not be subjected to four more years of Ahmadinejad and the radical Muslim clerics,” urging that Obama “should speak out that this is a corrupt, flawed sham of an election and that the Iranian people have been deprived of their rights.”
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, as befits his 2012 presidential delusions, as substantive as those self-promoted rumors about being considered as McCain’s running mate last year, goes even further:
“The Administration’s silence in the face of Iran’s brutal suppression of democratic rights represents a step backwards for homegrown democracy in the Middle East. President Obama must take a strong public position in the face of violence and human rights abuses. We have a moral responsibility to lead the world in opposition to Iran’s extreme response to peaceful protests.”
The Wall Street Journal is cheer-leading the GOP’s macho moves on Obama…