NBC's Today Despairs Team Bush Ruined Clinton Progress in North Korea

MRC ^ | 10-10-06

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

     As they padded for time waiting in the 9:30am half hour of Monday's Today for a live statement on the North Korean nuclear test from President Bush, NBC's Andrea Mitchell scolded that Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright were building reconciliation between North and South Korea, but Bush came in and ruined it, overruling his Secretary of State, Colin Powell, "cutting him off at the knees." Typically, Today co-host Matt Lauer insisted the North Korean nuclear test was just the latest in a string of bad news for Bush, from Iraq and Iran to the Mark Foley page scandal.

     [This item, by Tim Graham based on a transcript provided by Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Monday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     Matt Lauer led into the Clinton-praising section: "Andrea, I have to say as David [Gregory] mentioned a second ago, when I was there a few years ago it was surprising to me that there is starting to be this communication and actual physical contact between South and North Korea. This, there's a super highway being built that really connects the two."
     Andrea Mitchell: "Exactly. Well that and the rail connections. All of this as the new Sunshine policy that David alluded to but that came right up against the Bush administration's decision to cut off the connections. You know Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright were progressing in October and November of 2000 towards the restoration of diplomatic relations and if the Democrats had won that election that probably would've happened. Colin Powell recommended very strongly as the new Secretary of State in 2001 that, that policy be pursued. But it was cut short in March of 2001 by President Bush, overruling his new Secretary of State, some people said, cutting him off at the knees. That was the first real setback for Powell and then telling South Korea, the South Korean ally on the first visit in March 2001 that they would not support, the Bush administration would not support, re-engagement with North Korea. So there've been a lot of starts and stops but as David was, was pointing out and as you point out the South does want to re-engage. They have every reason, politically, to want to do that but this is not something this administration has really been comfortable with."
     Lauer: "Alright Andrea thank you very much. Tim Russert is NBC's Washington bureau chief, of course, moderator of Meet the Press and let's talk about the timing of this, Tim. It's been a bad few weeks for the administration. We've got problems in Iraq that seem to be getting worse. We've had the situation with Iran and the whole UN situation a couple of weeks ago, then the, the page scandal and the email scandal in Congress and now the administration wakes up to this nuclear test from North Korea."
     Russert: "Well Matt it is very important issue. Obviously back in May of 2003 President Bush said, quote, 'We will not tolerate North Korea having nuclear weapons.' And so he has drawn the line and now three years later North Korea is very much testing George Bush. It is ironic when they tested their long range rockets it was on the Fourth of July and now they've chosen Columbus Day to undertake this nuclear test. So it's very much a symbolic poke in the eye at the U.S. basically saying, 'we're gonna do what we want to do and you said we couldn't, what are you gonna do about it?' And this puts the President in a very difficult position."
     Lauer: "Well what does he do about it? I mean what can he say today, what tone should he strike to send a proper message?"
     Russert: "Well if you talk to military people Matt, they believe that the war in Iraq is one that is very much a strain on our assets. I don't find any one who believes that, at this time, a military action against North Korea is something that is being considered in a serious way. I think the President's first attempt will be at sanctions and the difficulty there, of course, is getting China and other countries to go along with them and so I expect some very strong words, some strong rhetoric, if you will, as the administration tries to buy time and figure out exactly what to do."

     It's not exactly like the Clinton "engagement" strategy made them peaceful. Why can't NBC acknowledge that the North Koreans made a deal with the Clinton team, and then cheated on it? Oh, they did. David Gregory noted the cheating, and then moved on. A tyranny like North Korea's doesn't find it difficult to cheat, and yet still stay in the good graces of global public opinion, as Western reporters see only diplomatic and military paralysis as the options:
     "He wants his regime to stick around and he has sought, before, security guarantees from the West. And you go way back to 1994 and the Clinton administration they negotiated an agreement with North Korea that said basically, 'Stop your weapons program, cold.' And the North Koreans started cheating on that toward the end of a 10 year period. So then President Bush comes to power, doesn't like the idea of negotiating with the North Koreans because he doesn't think that they negotiate in good faith and they cheat. And so you had a kind of freeze on diplomatic activity and then all of a sudden you have the so-called Six Party talks where you had regional players including the U.S. and Russia putting that pressure on to say, 'You can't continue a nuclear program.' And then finally North Korea has just pulled out of that process as well. So there's been all of this dancing going on."

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

[johnny7]

They are turning history on its head... lying in the face of known facts. The NewMedia has b*tch-slapped them countless times for it already... but like a doped-up psychotic... they keep doing the same, failed strategy over and over and over...

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

"You know Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright were progressing in October and November of 2000 towards the restoration of diplomatic relations and if the Democrats had won that election that probably would've happened."

Well, I'll say one thing...my opinion of Andrea Mitchell has been lowered quite a bit...

[cricket]

Need Bolton from U.N. or somesuch equally educated to go over and have a talk with all these NBC'ers. . .they need 'educating' big time.

[Normal4me]

The dems have always said that North Korea was a bigger threat than Iraq. Are they now willing to support military action against them or do they wants us to give them free healthcare and more plutonium? ;-)

[hnj_00]

yea...she has sunk from the top to the bottom fo the toilet bowl...

[GOPJ]

Have you seen the Zucker ad? It's about the Clinton Way - a third way.... check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h3GPc_yMCE

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

"No, what they were doing, as it turns out, they were cheating." --Albright on NBC's "Meet the Press"

I've never had a high opinion of Andrea Mitchell, just indignation.

[stockstrader]

Exactly. This is absolutely disgusting.

Clinton FUNDED THE ENTIRE thing with the 500,000 tons of fuel oil that he agreed to have shipped to North Korea every year. This was about $4 billion in aid.

With the bankrupt economy of North Korea and millions starving to death, there is no way that North Korea could have POSSIBLY funded their nuclear program with Clinton's aid.

This is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS.

Again, where is the Republican response? Their silence is deafening. They deserve to lose the House and Senate.

[yldstrk]

Folk NBC.

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

"RUSH: Steve Doocy today was talking to our ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton. Doocy said, "Yesterday on the way home I heard Rush Limbaugh talking on the radio about how we need a naval blockade so that anything going into or out of North Korea, we know exactly what's on there. Make sure it's not something illegal or something that could blow up. Is that a good idea?"

BOLTON: That's something that's important not only for their weapons of mass destruction but, you know, they're counterfeiting America money. They're engaged in money laundering, they're engaged in the sale of drugs through diplomatic pouches. They're doing all kinds of things to get money to support the regime. That's all the sort of thing we'd like to cut off.

RUSH: Yes! Well, Foley... Foley! (See, it even happens to me.) Doocy. (No offense, Steve. I don't think you look like Foley nor sound like him.) Doocy: "Yeah, but what about a naval blockade? How likely is that?"

BOLTON: Well, we're not at that point yet but what we need, really, is further international cooperation with our own proliferation security initiative, which the president created a few years ago of which has been quite successful in reducing the flow of weapons of mass destruction materials. We'd like broader cooperation from China, for example, on that. That's one of the things we're seeking here." --Bolton Asked About Blockade

[stockstrader]

The Republicans are SPINELESS.

So far the only ones who have spoken out about Clinton and his 1994 Agreement with North Korea are John Bolton and John McCain!

The Republicans are just as pathetic as the democrats. The democrats are shameless, but at least their 'spin' and their demagoguery show some backbone.

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

"If the 1994 Agreed Framework is implemented and two LWRs are eventually built and operated in North Korea, the reactors could produce close to 500 kilograms of plutonium in spent reactor fuel each year; enough for nearly 100 bombs annually if North Korea decides to break its obligations and reprocess the material."

AMAZING! Clinton gave North Korea the capacity...making them the largest receiver of U.S. foreign aid in Asia through his bribery-as-foreign-policy that included reactors...shipping ship 500,000 metric tons of oil annually that cost taxpayers $800 million dollars...and 1.1 million metric tons of food after he lobbed a missile over Japan in 1998...costing taxpayers $200 million and of course would first go to feeding the million man army North Korea has on the 38th parallel before rationing out the remains to their starving people.

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

See post 33 ...I have the figures.

[cricket]

We need more cowboys. . .

. . .and the Left mantra has to be rendered DOA. . .

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

The "Clinton Way" or "Third Way" sounds creepy to me...is X-rated??

[stockstrader]

Thanks.

Amazing. And yet we hear absolutely NOTHING from the Republicans about this.

Yes, this was common public knowledge, but the vast majority of Americans are NOT aware of Clinton's complicity and culpability in assiting North Korea's nuclear ambitions with the 94 Agreement.

We know the Press won't focus on it, but who would think the Republicans would just put their 'collective heads in the sand' and ignore it too. The Republicans deserve their fate in the next election.

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

I'm thinking, you're right! She's said pretty low things before. But, she just has to be a copycat and do like all the other liberal commentators and blame Bush. I'll bet she even blames Bush when her car doesn't start on a freezing, snowy day...

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

Well, the Republicans in 1999 did....in a very detailed report, but you're absolutely right that the republicans have failed dismally...they have a nuclear option and they could nuke the Democrats who are running ads attacking Bush on security over North Korea's test. The best thing we can do is what we always do...spread the truth through the new media and the blogosphere and rely on voices like Sean Hannity to put the democRATS in their place.