good start in Egypt

“Power” has a bad reputation in recent thinking. But at its best, power can do good things for at least some people/parties. The below represents a surprisingly good start for Morsi, and if we’re lucky, he’ll soon find himself more interested in being President of Egypt (something he surely never dreamed he would be) than in being a Brotherhood kingpin. Stranger things have happened.

Anyway, a woman and a Christian as VP’s are exactly what the Brotherhood needed to send some signal of not being a scary patriarchal Islamist organization.

And yes, get rid of that ridiculous law. Nice work by the court.

Cairo (CNN) — Egypt’s first ever democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, will make history in another way: by appointing a woman as vice president, his policy adviser told CNN.

He will also choose another vice president who is Christian, Ahmed Deif said.

The news came as the man Morsi beat for the presidency, Ahmed Shafik, left Egypt on a trip to Abu Dhabi, and as Cairo’s administrative court overturned a rule that allowed the military to arrest people without a warrant.

“For the first time in Egyptian history — not just modern but in all Egyptian history — a woman will take that position,” Deif told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday, referring to one of the vice presidency slots. “And it’s not just a vice president who will represent a certain agenda and sect, but a vice president who is powerful and empowered, and will be taking care of critical advising within the presidential Cabinet.”