Here’s what President Hosni Mubarak said on Al-Arabiya the other night:

Definitely Iran has influence on Shia. [They] are 65 percent of the Iraqis … Most of the Shia are loyal to Iran, and not to the countries they are living in. [Full Text]

Not his best moment as a statesman. It was pretty clear those comments would come back to bite him, and they have. Iraq’s not coming to an Arab League meeting to try to find a regional solution to the problems in Iraq.

‘Alb Sayed, riffing on the U.S. president’s “Bushisms,” coined the term “Mubarakisms” to describe what’s come out of the president of the republic’s mouth since he started projecting the image of a grumpy hagg.

I, for one, find Mubarak more likeable every day for exactly these reasons. Who can argue that the man–a war veteran, president of the Middle East’s most populous country for two decades, and, at 78, a survivor–doesn’t have the right to call things as he sees them? Anyone who reads his remarks as state policy? Lebanon? Kuwait? Bahrain? Iraq?

*Sigh* Why do world leaders have to be so responsible and boring all the time? OK, Al-Jaafari was upset, but he’s on his way out. His few months at the helm don’t hold a candle to Mubarak’s decades. Who needs the Iraqis at a meeting of Arab governments to discuss Iraq? The show must go on.

“Time for Mubarak to spare himself the burden of leadership,” Beirut’s Daily Star suggested in an April 10 editorial (I wonder if this one ran in the Egyptian edition, by the way? My understanding was that the Cairo bureau was trying to steer clear of taking controversial stands on domestic politics).

That would be a shame. Part of me would miss seeing Mubarak, beset by whippersnappers a fraction of his age, grumble on television. If he does retire, I hope he’ll make frequent public appearances. Viva Mubarak.

See also Zeinobia’s defense of Mubarak on the substance of his comments…

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