What an unmitigated mess we have with North Korea. While it would be nice to cast aside politics in moments like this we have to remember that everything is political when dealing with Republicans.
First up, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ):
“I would remind Senator Clinton and other Democrats critical of the Bush administration’s policies that the framework agreement her husband’s administration negotiated was a failure." - NYT 10/11/06
Didn't you just know it was going to be Clinton's fault? I really don't know what it is with these people, but everything is Clinton's fault with them. Even their very own Mark Foley scandal is somehow Clinton's fault in their twisted little pea brains.
The Republican logic via nimrod Condelezza Rice (how embarrassing is she?):
There is no doubt that the North Koreans used the cover of the framework agreement to pursue a different path to a nuclear weapon through highly enriched uranium. - NYDailyNews
(The one thing that I love about this quote, however, is how McCain, the presumed front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, directly references Sen. Hillary Clinton (R-NY), the presumed front-runner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee. The 2008 general election is on!)
Normally I would be a little worried about a national security concern emerging so close to an election. The American people have typically run straight to the Republicans when threatened while the frickin Democrats typically sit back and let that happen. Ugh! But, along the way the Democrats got smart. We have been saying for some time now that while our are bogged down in the Iraq mess (thanks to Republican incompetence) N. Korea and Iran are being ignored.
Democrats like Ms. McCaskill, the Missouri state auditor who is in a tight Senate race with the incumbent Republican, Jim Talent, have spent months saying Mr. Bush paid too much attention to Iraq, while ignoring threats like North Korea. Now, Democrats are now busy saying “I told you so” to voters.
But Republicans like Mike McGavick, the Senate candidate in Washington State, are offering up an “I told you so” of their own, by spotlighting Democratic opposition to a missile defense system that is strongly backed by Mr. Bush.
Give me a frackin' break with this missile defense shield crap. First of all, the shit doesn't work. Second of all, how the frick is a shield going to prevent N. Korea from selling their nuclear technology to say....Al Qaeda? What are the Republicans gonna say when some white guy with a briefcase sized nuke walks across the border via Canada? I swear these people are idiots. But, again, logic isn't the game here. The American people doesn't respond to logic, we respond to politics. This time around the Clintons Democrats are fighting back:
Hillary:
Now is not the time to play politics of the most dangerous kind with our policy on North KoreaNow is not the time to play politics of the most dangerous kind with our policy on North Korea. History is clear that nothing the Bush administration has done has stopped the North Koreans from openly testing a nuclear weapon and presenting a new danger to the region of the world.
But, William Perry provides the real substantive response in today's Washington Post. I Will not quote from it here because this post is already way too long and it is a must read. The primary gist of it is that the Clinton approach was not perfect (which approach is?), but it at least drastically slowed the North down. While Bush's approach of chest thumping followed by.....NOTHING has gotten us to where we are today. What, exactly, was the consequence on the North for kicking out inspectors and reopening the spent fuel? Nada. What was the consequence of testing the long range missiles a few months back? Nada. What will be the consequence of their nuclear test? The Bush folks are all talk and the N. Koreans know it. The Iranians know it.
Do the American people now know it too? That is the question.
