John Bolton Is A @#**! Idiot

No sooner than Bill Clinton return from North Korea triumphant in bringing home Laura Ling and Euna Lee than John Bolton urinated on his shoe. (I could say he rained on Clinton's parade, but this is a reactionary Republican we're talking about.)

Bolton, who served as Bush the Younger's United Nations ambassador in a recess appointment and amazingly alienated us from the rest of the planet even more than Bush had, complained that Clinton only legitimized North Korean leader Kim Jong Il by going to Pyongyang and pleading for Ling and Lee to be released and rewarded the practice of illegitimately arresting and detaining them in the first place, which was tantamount to hostage taking. Even worse, Bolton complained, Clinton negotiated with nothing to offer, putting himself in a position of weakness and making it easy for American journalists abroad to be captured. This sounds like an extreme rightist opinion, and it is, but the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, which published Bolton's op-ed piece, even chided Clinton for allowing Kim to bully him the same way a Chicago ward boss would.

Neither the Star-Ledger nor Bolton seem to be concerned with the fact that the welfare of two women were involved, not nuclear weapons. As for Clinton legitimizing Kim, Kim doesn't need for the former President's help. He's already legitimized by having the fourth largest army - which could invade South Korea the day after tomorrow - in the world.

To think that Bolton was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Having a xenophobe like Bolton in that position makes about as much sense as making Willie Sutton a prison warden.

I want to hear John Bolton pontificate on international diplomacy as much as I want to hear Michael Bolton sing.

Rescue Mission

Former President Bill Clinton's success in getting Asian-American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee released from prison in North Korea with a full pardon from North Korean leader Kim Jong Il proved two important things to the world:

1) There's nothing Clinton can't do.

2) Kim Jong Il is still alive.

The Obama administration had been negotiating the release of Ling and Lee for weeks with the North Koreans, and Clinton intervened to close the sale. The White House sought to stay out of the final meetings between Clinton and the Communist government to avoid unnecessary interference on a sensitive matter. Dealing with Kim Jong Il under any circumstances is a tricky affair, so Obama, who makes the dough as President, is happy to let his Secretary of State's husband get the glory.

North Korea hopes to get good publicity with its act of good faith, but last time I checked, they still have a lot of nukes.

There's a bit of ironic symmetry to this story. It ended with Clinton's private diplomacy, but it began when Ling and Lee went to China on assignment for the cable channel run by Clinton's onetime second-in-command, Al Gore - before crossing into North Korea inadvertently. Crossing into unfriendly countries is a common habit of Americans these days.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, late word is that the cash-for-clunkers car program extension should make it through the Senate.

Nukes of the North

A week ago North Korea tested a nuclear weapon that sent shock waves in the ground and around the world. South Korea responded by joining the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led effort to keep weapons of mass destruction from falling into the wrong hands, which led North Korea to vow to no longer honor the 1953 armistice ending the Korean War. This week . . . well, the crisis seems to be getting less attention, possibly because of GM's bankruptcy being such a big story. But it's still an issue. South Koreans got a little scared recently when a North Korean patrol boat briefly crossed into South Korean waters. North Korea has put two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling (Lisa Ling's sister) on trial, accusing them of espionage.

No one seriously believes that North Korea will start another war, and the consensus is that they're merely rattling their sabers in a show of force. But many are concerned with the possibility of their weapons falling into the hands of the wrong people (I'll come right out and say it - terrorists!), and Kim Jong Il, currently reported to be ill, remains impenetrable.

Meanwhile, the North Korean population is starving, and if the country gets in an even deep rut, everything there could collapse. And with nuclear weapons on top of that? If the peninsula ever does become one country again, it won't be as peaceful and seamless a reunification as happened in Germany.

Or even Vietnam.