Posted on 10/10/2006 2:30:59 PM PDT by 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."
Someone posted this earlier on a related thread...It's needed here
Well, the Left's does a great job of 'demigogueing' 'so to speak'. . .but don't think it is backbone that infuses their MO. . .but rather a spineless non-resistance to evil that motivates them. . .
. . .being 'spineless' allows them to be brazen. . .arrogant; indifferent to truth; gluttonous for power; allergic to any form of altruism; in their spinlessness; they are mean and they are snarky; they are rude and they can be dangerous. . .as well as 'very dangerous'.
These people do not 'walk tall' but rather 'crawl low'. . .
1. Bush inheritied a RECESSION from Clinton. The market tanked 9 months before Clinton left office--and entered recession the first quarter of 2001.
2. Bush inherited a grossly underfunded intelligence budget,
3. Bush inherited a grossly underfunded military,
4. Bush inherited the Gorelick Wall (with bricks supplied by Clinton),
5. Bush inherited a national security mess when it came to terrorism due to all of the above--and Clinton's derelection of duty on national security,
6. Bush inherited an absolute mess dealing with North Korea due to Clinton's 1994 Agreement with North Korea to subsidize their economy and allow them nuclear technology, and
7. Republicans are letting the democrats set the agenda with this Foley fiasco.
The MSM sure won't highlight these ISSUES (except with the 'spin' the democrats put on it)--but you would think the Republicans WOULD. Their silence on these facts is outrageous. As I said, the Republicans deserve their fate in next month's election.
PING..
I agree.
Rather than having our troops sitting in So. Korea, enjoying their kimchee and their new wifes,
we need these troops in Iraq, killing poeple and breaking things!
We need U.S. troops in Iraq to fight fanatical Islamic-Jihadists and former Baathists that are want to establish their "caliphate" of one-world totalitarian islamic state...the ayatollah of Iraq gave a speech yesterday declaring they would use any means...even chemical and biological to conquer such capitals as Moscow, London, and Washington D.C. - we also need them to protect our southern border from a literal invasion.
Believe it or not... McCain actually came out a bit after Hillary tried to sling some NK crap towards Bush. Not that I forgive him for being such a RINO...
The rest of the Republican Party's silence is pathetic.
How naive, ignorant and stupid of 'Today' to think that America can just wine and dine the dictator and everyone will live happily everafter. Lauer and company should stick to promoting bio's and CD's of their liberal friends...
KOREAN KONSEQUENCES
CLINTON GAVE NORTH KOREA THE BOMB
By: Geoff Metcalf
Notwithstanding the protestations of blind democrat sycophants, former President Bill Clinton was a foreign policy disaster. The consequences of his geopolitical myopia and epic penchant for doing exactly the wrong thing are personified in the recent acknowledgment of North Korea.
So they lied
and North Korea IS working to develop nuclear weapons. You got a problem with that?
Arguably one of the worst foreign policy screw-ups since FDR sat down with Stalin in Yalta, North Korea fessed up to their nuke work. Work, which would have been highly unlikely, had not the Clinton regime showered billions of dollars in foreign aid throughout the 1990s and earmarked a chunk for North Koreas nuclear energy program. In 1994 Clinton/Gore earmarked aid primarily for the construction of nuclear reactors worth up to $6 billion...
http://www.etherzone.com/2002/metc102902.shtml
NBC has it exactly bass-akwards. The Clinton regime ruined it for everyone else.
Not true, Kim couldn't afford the Campaign Funds to get our most top secret nuclear/missle secrets like China.
Pray for W and Our Troops
http://www.drudgereport.com/flashma.htm
The Youtube video on the Dimms
Somebody save it!
Albright hears North Korea pledge to end missile tests
Chicago Sun-Times, Oct 24, 2000 by GEORGE GEDDA PYONGYANG, North Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright today that his country won't test any more missiles.
Albright said she took seriously Kim's promise, delivered seemingly offhand at a gymnastic exhibition.
Kim raised the issue when an image of a Taepo Dong I missile was flashed before the audience. "He quipped that this was the first satellite launch and it would be the last," Albright said.
Asked if she interpreted that as a pledge to end missile launches, Albright said, "I take what he said as serious as to his desire to move forward to resolve various questions."
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said after Albright and Kim finished their talks that the North Korean leader has accepted the idea of "serious restraint" in missiles.
Albright was going to Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday to tell South Korean and Japanese officials about her talks with Kim. President Clinton is considering whether to visit North Korea himself.
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Diplomats offered no further elaboration of Kim's words in the meetings. Lower-level talks on missiles were planned for next week.
Many analysts are convinced North Korea already has the capacity to strike at the perimeter of the United States with a long-range missile.
That concern has been the main impetus for proposals to build a U.S. national missile defense system. North Korea already has agreed to freeze its nuclear weapons program and to stop selling missiles to regimes the United States considers hostile.
"Chairman Kim was quite clear in explaining his understanding of U.S. concerns," Albright said of her meetings, describing him as "a good listener and very decisive."
Albright said they also discussed security issues, terrorism, human rights and "the need for concrete steps toward tension reduction on the Korean peninsula."
Copyright The Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Albright seeks global help for North Korean projects
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The, May 2, 1998 Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is seeking international donations to help pay for a civilian power reactor and diesel oil that were promised to North Korea in exchange for a freeze in its nuclear weapons program.
In South Korea on Friday, and earlier in Japan during a weeklong Asia trip, Albright talked to officials about the need to raise about $500 million to help pay for the $5 billion reactor and a minimum of $47 million to cover a debt on diesel purchases. Further deliveries the United States is committed to provide 500,000 metric tons a year will run that bill up.
If the reactor agreement founders, there is "grave risk" that North Korea will resume a program that the Pentagon said already had turned out at least one nuclear weapon, she said. "There should be no doubt we will fulfill an agreement as important as this," she said. She stressed the agreement "has prevented the emergence of a nuclear power." South Korea has pledged to pay for 70% of the reactor, and Japan 20%. That leaves 10%, or about $500 million, uncovered. Meanwhile, the Clinton administration is providing strong backing for the diplomacy South Korea is pursuing for peace and reunification on the peninsula. Praising President Kim Dae-jung as "one of the world's true champions of freedom," Albright endorsed his call for resuming the North-South dialogue that stalled last month and the government's drive for four-way peace talks that include the U.S. and China.
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