If only the Bush administration would make up its mind.
Bush told a group of senators that Kim Jong Il is a “pygmy” who acts like “a spoiled child at a dinner table” and is “starving his own people” in “a Gulag the size of Houston.”
Bush, ever the soft-spoken diplomat, told a reporter that he “loathes” Kim Jong Il on a “visceral level.”
The Bush administration, this week (via Atrios):
A senior U.S. official said on Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is a “rational” leader who would be able to transform his impoverished Stalinist state once he resolves the nuclear standoff with the international community.
“Many accusations that he (Kim Jong-il) is some sort of crazy person are not correct,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said in an exclusive interview with The Korea Times at his office in the State Department. He said Kim’s leadership is one that is unique and rational.
Masters of diplomacy, aren’t they? The president publicly mocks the madman, his State Department complements him. What was that Bush was saying during the campaign about a consistent, credible voice on international affairs?