Quote of the day

“It comes perilously close to negotiating with terrorists,” John Bolton told AFP when asked about Bill Clinton’s trip to secure the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

But Kim Jong Il* is not a terrorist. He is the leader of North Korea. Bolton appears to be using the word "terrorist" in much the same way that children use the word "snotbag" or "meanie."

I mean this is a classic case of rewarding bad behavior, the seizure of these two basically innocent Americans. Obviously all of us want to get them out but we want it done in a way that doesn’t increase the risks in the future for other Americans seized by North Korea, seized by Iran, seized by other despotic regimes and then turned into pawns to get senior officials like former presidents to come and legitimize the regime in order to get them out.

Two lives in exchange for a photo-op is a bad deal? Really? Bolton certainly knows how to take a really big crap on good news.

*A name my wife cannot hear without hearing the three-note chorus of Simon & Garfunkel's Frank Lloyd Wright.