The AP reports on the victory of the Brotherhood (which has many distinguished alumni) in Egypt:

“The youth feel let down. They don’t feel that any of the revolution’s goals have been achieved,” ElBaradei told The Associated Press in an interview on the same day electoral authorities announced that Islamist parties captured an overwhelming majority of votes in the first round of elections last week. “They got decimated,” he said, adding the youth failed to unify and form “one essential critical mass.”

The High Election Commission announced that the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party garnered 36.6 percent of the 9.7 million valid ballots cast last week for party lists. The Nour Party, representing the more hard-line Salafi Islamists, captured 24.4 percent.

The tallies offer only a partial indication of how the new parliament will look. There are still two more rounds of voting in 18 of the country’s 27 provinces over the coming month and runoff elections on Monday and Tuesday to determine almost all of the seats allocated for individuals in the first round. But the grip of the Islamists over the next parliament appears set, particularly considering their popularity in provinces voting in the next rounds…

“The outcome so far is not the greatest one,” he said, summing up the mood of the country’s educated elite as well as average Egyptians as “angst.” The new parliament will be tasked, in theory, with selecting a 100-member panel to draft the new constitution. If Islamist parties dominate, more liberal forces worry the constitution will be greatly influenced by the religious perspective.

NYT flashback: “to be in Tahrir Square tonight, to feel the energy and pride of a people taking back the keys to their country and their future from a tired old dictator, was a privilege.” (If you needed a definitive reason to never listen to Tom Friedman again, that will do nicely.) The outcome of the election is a bad thing, but it isn’t the worst thing in this sorry story. As we said back in February, what purpose is served by being an ally of the US if we’ll abandon that ally at the first sign of trouble?

We’re reminded of what the Vice President said: “We ought to have a come-to-Jesus meeting with an old friend, and he is a friend who occasionally calls me at home — I always know it’s him when he says, ‘Joe, it’s Mubarak. What are you doing’?” He’s not calling anymore.

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