Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Unable to go to Pyongyang in his final days as president because of preoccupation with the Middle East, Bill Clinton invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to Washington in hopes of closing a missile deal, but was turned down, his former secretary of state says. In her new autobiography, Madeleine Albright reveals that Clinton later regretted investing his last days in office pursuing an elusive Israel-Palestinian accord rather than a possible agreement with the isolated communist regime. In the book, "Madam Secretary," and during an interview with Reuters, Albright made clear she believes President Bush has squandered...

You might have thought that Madeleine Albright — the one who could never quite figure out whether she was Jewish or not, or was it whether or not her father was? — the woman who will go down in a sad footnote to history as the first American Secretary of State to actually, literally, dance with a dictator (in North Korea no less), would be so ashamed of her miserable performance in office that she would restrain herself when asked her opinion of the president's request for authorization to blast Saddam to a higher level of reality. But no. She...