The ADVANCE Democracy Act–What I Saw at the Press Conference

The four co-sponsors present, as follows:

• Sen. John McCain, R, Arizona
• Sen. Joe Lieberman, D, Connecticut
• Rep. Frank Wolf, R, Virginia
• Rep. Tom Lantos, D, California

I walked in during their introductory statements, maybe five minutes late.

Rep. Frank Wolf was speaking when I walked in. Of the four congressmen, he’s the one you’re least likely to have heard of, which is a shame. Frank Wolf seemed to belong in the presence of giants as he spoke cogently about the importance of the ideas Natan Sharansky had discussed in his book. I’d add that I’d have more to tell you about what he said, but for yet another snippy press corp byaatch who started in with some annoying questions–who are you with? are you sure you’re not from the Talon News Service? (take note: private lives are apparently newsworthy again; where will the Wheel of Newsworthiness stop next week?). I started scribbling stuff and she eventually gave up.

It’s not like they going to haul me out of a press conference about freedom in front of Al-Jazeera and the Red Chinese, right?

Tom Lantos was hawking a book, too, Breaking the Axis of Evil by Ambassador Mark Palmer. Lantos told the journos about his experience of having actually lived under a “fascist” regime, and contrasted what happened in his Hungarian homeland in 1956 versus what happened in 1989. To Lantos, the difference was the support of democratic nations, as he also believes it was in the Ukraine. For a Democrat, Lantos was remarkable for his willingness to go out of his way to praise President Bush’s “Braveheart” inauguration speech. He directly critcized “cynics” who didn’t believe that the United States could or should spread democracy to other countries. The two countries Rep. Lantos mentioned by name were Belarus and North Korea. Oh, and he said, “Lebanon needs our help.”

The first question was about North Korea, and came from Sun Myung-Moon’s former holding, the Segye Ilbo (one of the Korean print media’s most reliable instigators of anti-American hack journalism). The question was much better than the paper: in essence–given that the bill depends heavily on funding and organizing pro-democracy activities through our embassies, how could this bill have much effect in places like North Korea where the U.S. has no embassy?
John McCain took the question. He came right out of the gate by stating that North Korea was one of the targets of this bill–“among the most repressive” regimes on earth–and that it was also likely to be among the last nations to be free. He drew a few laughs when he contrasted conditions there to the “vibrant democracy” of South Korea, adding that it was “sometimes too vibrant.”

Joe Lieberman also responded, noting that the bill creates what he called “regional democracy hubs” and provides greatly expanded funding for pro-democracy NGOs, which don’t work out of embassies in any event.

In response to a rather rambling and disjointed question from a Russian reporter, Tom Lantos was “optimistic” about North Korea, given the long-term historical trend. I silently prayed that he’d say, “It’s inebbitable!,” but in vain. Paging back mentally to the previous question, Rep. Lantos noted that the United States had just negotiated its way back into Libya, and that with sufficient time, American values would penetrate Libyan society and politics. He predicted that eventually, Libya would hold free elections. Lantos stressed the fact that democratizing the world (or most of it, I suppose he meant) would take many years. He noted the odd fact that the U.S. State Department has an office devoted to human rights but none to devoted to democracy, which isn’t the same thing, of course.

Representative Wolf talked about nations that had been freed, where we only later discovered the surprising extent to which those living inside heard the words spoken by our own leaders (here, it wasn’t hard to guess what he was thinking). He brought up the fact that the United States had no diplomatic relations with Albania before the overthrow of its goverment (to which I’d add that the Albanian government was nearly as oppressive as North Korea’s).

Al-Jazeera, whose correspondent no doubt slid into the room like a minnow through pondwater, got the most laughs of the day when he asked, “Can we fairly say that America will be a friend of all opposition groups now?” McCain took the question, sidestepped the inanities, and related his belief that our message was already getting through to the Middle East, but that building democracy there would take a long time. Lieberman was more indulgent, admitting that America had often “mouthed the language” of democracy in the past–especially in the Middle East–without much sincerity. No argument from me on that one. Lieberman strongly praised President Bush for his SOTU statements challenging Saudi Arabia and Egypt to reform themselves.

The next question was from Yonhap. The reporter was a nice guy, but his question was predictably stupid, which turned out fine given that John McCain took it. How, the reporter asked, might this bill affect the six-party talks, given North Korea’s unpleasant reaction to the North Korean Human Rights Act (Yonhap’s guy apparently didn’t get the memo about those talks, and yeah, I got this memo myself, to which I say, “So?”). Wouldn’t this make North Korea angry? McCain said that while he listens to what many world leaders say, “I don’t pay a lot of attention to statements from the Dear Leader myself.”

Think the Yonhap guy put any of this in his story, or much of anything else about the bill? Think again.

The hands-down dumbest question of the day was the ChiCom reporter’s faithful parroting of the Partei doctrine, demanding to know what business the United States had demanding that other countries respect the rights of their people, when . . . Abu Ghraib! He even had the brass balls to attack the United States for its prison conditions (cough! cough!). McCain handled it just right, laughing off the prison question, then conceding that the United States is not perfect, and saying that it has a system that holds abusers accountable. The world can judge whether the United States is protecting the rights of its citizens, McCain said, and flipping on his irony switch, noted that the world could reach the same judgments about China.

It came from a reporter from the Middle East News Service, and the answer from John McCain was that Syria should leave Lebanon ASAP and stop supporting terrorists.