Laura Bush, that is. “First lady Laura Bush on Monday endorsed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s plan for presidential elections as ‘bold and wise,’ reports the AP/NYT, “despite complaints from opposition groups that the voting is designed to keep Mubarak in power.” Mrs. Bush reiterated “support for Mubarak’s election plan” Tuesday, reports WaPo today.


Ayman Nour, the sole opposition candidate, criticized Mrs. Bush: “It shows she doesn’t understand anything at all. She made a statement that suggests she doesn’t know she was in Egypt. It was comical.”

The campaign of the sole opposition candidate was reduced to this Tuesday:

A clutch of 20 Nour supporters bought tickets to the movie “Kingdom of Heaven” in order to have an excuse to loiter in front of a downtown cinema and shout anti-Mubarak slogans.


But the ruse at the movie theatre didn’t work:

The WaPo report continues:

The ruse to overcome police restrictions on public meetings didn’t work for long. Within a half-hour, a phalanx of thick-forearmed plainclothes security agents backed by dozens of club-carrying riot police marched down narrow Abdel-Hamid Said Street, shoved the protesters into the lobby of the Odeon Theater and scattered reporters and passersby down the block.


Five of the plainclothes men dragged Ihab Khouly, a senior member of Nour’s Tomorrow Party, to jail for a brief stay. Nour’s wife, Gamila Ismael, was manhandled, though she was soon permitted to return to nearby party headquarters.


“The Odeon Theater fracas, reports the WaPo, “came a day after first lady Laura Bush, on a trip to the Middle East, endorsed Mubarak’s election proposals.”

It was a small episode in what critics say is an increasingly brazen campaign of intimidation against opposition forces as Egypt heads toward its first multi-candidate presidential election. Nour’s campaign has almost come to a halt because of an attack on a caravan in early May by a mob in a community northeast of Cairo.


Members of parties and organizations that have protested Mubarak’s proposed election rules have suffered almost daily arrests and police raids. By official count, more than 750 members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been rounded up during the past two months. Although it is banned from political activity, the Brotherhood is Egypt’s largest opposition group. On Tuesday, 19 members of Kifaya, a movement that has spearheaded peaceful protests since last fall, were arrested for putting up anti-Mubarak posters.


In another WaPo story today on Laura Bush’s Mid-East whirlwind tour:

In Egypt, she praised President Hosni Mubarak for planning the first-ever multi-candidate elections, but some opposition leaders criticized her for blessing what they consider an election process rigged to reelect him.


In the interview, Bush reiterated her support for Mubarak’s election plan, which would require candidates for office to secure the blessing of the president’s ruling party to participate. A vote on a referendum on the plan is expected Wednesday. “I said exactly what I meant, which is he has taken a very, very important first step,” she said. “What we all have to see is whether or not this works.”

“‘What kind of presidential campaign can we have if we have to organize in secret?’ Ismael asked as the police began to corral the group inside the Odeon”:

A few baffled moviegoers tried to weave past the cluster of police and demonstrators, but were turned back. The rest of the street was sealed off with chains and plainclothes men. The demonstrators were eventually permitted to leave the theater one by one.


Under emergency laws in place for almost 25 years, police can break up any gathering of more than five people. In a March speech, President Bush included the right of assembly as a prerequisite for a fair election in Egypt. Abdel Halim Qandeel, a founding member of Kifaya, which means “enough,” said: “The Bushes are something like the Mubaraks. Full of lies.”


Hey, we’d like “freedom of assembly” too. Anti-Bush protestors in the U.S. are now routinely corralled and distanced in the U.S.


Note: Thanks to Jerry for sending me some of these stories.