Just in Time

Just as conservatives are beginning to throw in the towel about November 7th, a savior arises to do for them what they seem incapable of doing for themselves. He has ridden to the rescue before...on several occasions exactly. In fact, it is one of those very instances that wakes him from his slumber now.

Perhaps, as an aside, I wonder if it explains why the Congressional Republicans have looked like they're in the middle of a Chinese fire drill for the last week and a half: they've been waiting for somebody else to bail them out. As if on Karl Rove's cue, Jimmy Carter is ever happy to oblige.

Jimmy re-writes and re-weaves the fabric of history today to place the sole blame for recent developments in Korea squarely at the feet of President Bush:

But beginning in 2002, the United States branded North Korea as part of an axis of evil, threatened military action, ended the shipments of fuel oil and the construction of nuclear power plants and refused to consider further bilateral talks. In their discussions with me at this time, North Korean spokesmen seemed convinced that the American positions posed a serious danger to their country and to its political regime.

Responding in its ill-advised but predictable way, Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, expelled atomic energy agency inspectors, resumed processing fuel rods and began developing nuclear explosive devices.

Never minding all we know about how the North broke the agreement within a few short years of it's signing. What have the usual suspects to say about it?

It is sadly predictable that the worst ex-President ever, Jimmy Carter, has weighed in on the NoKo nuke crisis on the New York Timed op-ed page...

There he goes again: When Carter's offer to mediate was being considered, according to the U.S. officials who negotiated the Agreed Framework for Clinton (writing in the excellent Going Critical): "Some officials (especially those who had worked for Carter in the past) worried that the strong-willed former president would freelance when he disagreed with U.S. policy." When Carter came to the White House for the trip-prep, National Security Adviser Anthony Lake wanted Carter fully briefed so he could "accurately describe" the U.S. position. But, the authors note, "Carter clearly viewed his role far more expansively than as a messenger between Washington and Pyongyang."

Carter announced the details of this "agreement" on CNN without even consulting the White House first. And the devil was in his concessions to Pyongyang: no anytime-anywhere inspections, and no dismantling of the plutonium program. Clinton was livid. According to Going Critical, one official at the White House told him, "'What we have is nothing new... The problem is that North Korea now has a former president as its spokesman.'" And that's what the Clinton people thought of Carter and his "agreement."

There he goes again...again: Jimmy Carter turns up in the pages of the New York Times this morning to pat himself on the back for having "solved" the NorKo nuclear crisis back in 1994. Of course, Carter implies that the whole thing is George W. Bush's fault for having called the Norks bad names ("axis of evil"). It is a classic example of Carter's delusional state of mind. Just deconstruct this graph, for example:

Responding to an invitation from President Kim Il-sung of North Korea, and with the approval of President Bill Clinton, I went to Pyongyang and negotiated an agreement under which North Korea would cease its nuclear program at Yongbyon and permit inspectors from the atomic agency to return to the site to assure that the spent fuel was not reprocessed. It was also agreed that direct talks would be held between the two Koreas

Where to start. "an invitation from Kim Il Sung." Yes, and why do you suppose he wanted Carter so badly? ". . . with the approval of Bill Clinton. . ." Accuracy demands that it read "with the reluctant approval of Bill Clinton." Carter actually presented Clinton with a fait accompli -Carter told the White House was going to go hold hands with the Norks whether Clinton approved or not. Clinton, by the way, was furious with the outcome, which Carter announced on CNN before he told the White House. Clinton told Warren Christopher that Carter was to be stopped from making any further freelance trips of this kind. "It was also agreed that direct talks be held between the two Koreas." The Norks demanded a multi-million dollar payment from the South Koreans just to show up for the talks. In other words, the Norks turned it into a Jesse Jackson-style shakedown operation.

But remember--Jimmy is our best ex-president ever.

TM testifies to the point of Jimmy's most excellent re-write of history. My question is, does Jimmy miss the irony of it all?