It is obvious that Clinton's trip "undermined U.S. Foreign Policy"! After all, our country's foreign policy is far too important to trust to the elected president and must still be determined by the hearty band of neocons who have been absolutely correct about everything for the last 8 years.

Sean Hannity and Dana Perino chatted on Fox News last night about how yesterday's talks may have undermined U.S. foreign policy.

Did anyone tell Sean Hannity and Dana Perino or Fox News that US foreign policy changed in January 2009?

The GOP: America's Taliban

Steve writes:"encouraging news is immediately stepped on,"

This has been the Right response for some time now, first taken to foaming at the mouth hights during the Clinton Era (although FDR-"That Man"- got his share of vitriol).

Maybe is it just me; admittedly a Pragmatic Liberal, but I don't remember such knee jerk condemnation of EVERYTHING done by Republican administrations.

And Lord knows there were daily opportunities during Dubya's reign. . .

Morning aphorism

If he changed water into wine they'd kvetch the bouquet was too floral.

It's just basic winger tactics-- establish a narrative, then stick to it. The notion that there might be more than one way of looking at things, that politicians and policies have good days and bad days is for losers.

Bolton, like Orly Taitz, if the kind of goofy spokesperson that makes the right look deservedly bad with every appearance. His performance here benefits his side about as much as his time as U.N. ambassador benefited the country as a whole.

"John Bolton was on the offensive" =>
"John Bolton is just plain offensive"
Corrected for clarity.

Question: couldn't Bill Clinton made some effort to make a trade for the journalists, say, exchanging Bolton, Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh and Dobbs for them? D'oh, what am I thinking? Dropping those exploding gasbags on another country would constitute a war crime...

OK, let's get something clear.

If Mr. Clinton went "on his own" and obtained the release privately, he didn't undermine U.S. foreign policy because he doesn't have the authority to promise anything to Mr. Kim.

If he went on the authority of the President, then this IS U.S. foreign policy, so how can he be undermining it?

I guess Bolton and Perino are complaining that BUSH foreign policy would have been to let these women rot in prison while making a couple of "Axis of Evil" speeches and doing little else. Indeed, Clinton undermined THAT.

Did anyone tell Sean Hannity and Dana Perino or Fox News that US foreign policy changed in January 2009?

Not to mention the utter absurdity of Perino -- who had never heard of the Cuban missile crisis and is so ignorant she thought it would be endearing to gigglingly brag about that in public -- being asked to comment on anyone's foreign policy.

Good news for the nation under Obama equals bad news for the GOP and neocons, thus, it must be stepped on.

Just like anything that may benefit the nation, really, including health care reform, climate legislation, stimulus money--if it looks good, it's bad for them. Who really 'hates America'?

Why would we trade a journalist Sean Hannity..a man who makes a story out of dijon mustard?

Seriously, I realized last night the pain of perhaps having to praise Obama, Hillary Clinton AND Bill Clinton might be the final unhinger for a lot of maniacs on the Right. As if they aren't already unhinged enough.

don't forget the flip side of the neocon agenda: to simultaneously step on the BAD NEWS coming from the GOP, so their audience can't refect on how evil & incompetent their leaders truly are at governing.

How dare anyone cast aspersions on the Ice Queen. Why she just thought the Bay of Pigs was a childrens game of "One little piggy went to market, two little piggys got shot down".

Of course, Bolton, Hannity and Perino are upset because they had wanted to visit the Memorial Monuments of the two ladies in Korea Town in LA. Better to lay wreaths at the feet of Martyrs cast in stone, while crooning, "Nuke 'em all, nuke 'em all,the long, the short and the tall".

So, a blow-dried moron and the mouthpiece for the worst president ever are bashing Obama--who cares? I have to say, if I didn't read sites like these, I would never even know what these idiots on Fox"news" are saying--and I don't think anyone outside of the rump Repub minority knows or cares either.
All that I've heard this morning is that Bill Clinton secured the release of two Americans from North Korea, which most sane people consider to be good news.

Oh yeah, and Dana Perino knows as much about foreign policy as a third grader, although it's still more than Hannity.

Isn't the important thing that two American citizens are back on US soil, free from a 12-year sentence in a prison camp? And as you say, nothing was conceded or handed over.

WAY TO GO, BUBBA!!!

The neo-cons don't have to thank President Obama, former-President Clinton or SOC Clinton. The families of Ms. Lee and Ms. Ling have done that already. They are just happy that someone had enough sense to get them out safely.
This is the difference between republican and democratic presidents, and the neo-cons hate it.

"So, Americans were freed, we didn't have to give up anything, and no shots were fired."

Yeah, a trifecta of failure. Nothing to feed our insatiable appetite for indignation.

PaulW
Question: couldn't Bill Clinton made some effort to make a trade for the journalists, say, exchanging Bolton, Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh and Dobbs for them? D'oh, what am I thinking? Dropping those exploding gasbags on another country would constitute a war crime...

It is funny thinking about the richly deserved consequences of the sublimely thoughtless "leaders" included here . Shameless , thoughtless , arrogant , cruel , I have enjoyed salads with fewer constituent parts . I do think those leafy repasts were a bit sharper than the tossed manes above heating up their small , sick , feverish shtick .

Bolton and his ilk aren't Americans per se,any more than they are relentless partisans. Who knows, maybe Franco is Bolton's role model! -Kevo

p.s. Look for Hannity, Perino, Huckagee, Savage and the others to begin wearing the same color shirts on air just to make their arguments stronger!

As Demint has demonstrated in past comments about the defeat of healthcare reform being Obama's Waterloo, all far right-wingers feel it is their duty to twist good news for this country as bad news in order to oppose this Kenyan born (anything but American...which to them means Anglo)President. While there are legitimate debates for and against certain policy, these neo-cons can be counted on to present the most absurd and offensive non-debates.

There's a new sheriff in town and he thinks and acts differently from the prior deputy dawg...they have to try everything to "run him out of town" and take his party with him.

"Bolton, Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh and Dobbs"

And, turn those kimchi fields into toxic waste? Oh, kimchi is already toxic enough, eh?

However, if they are sent there, please provide them with the same as our unfortunate troops were supplied in 1950. Summer gear and worthless Mickey Mouse boots for the winter. Of course, with Limbaugh and Dobbs, they could all snuggle up.

Because North Korea desperately wants recognition from the United States

That's what North Korea wants? Really? That's all? Just our recognition??

This reiterates the perception of the GOP as callous and uncaring about people. Most Americans will be overjoyed by such news, relieved that these young women are home. When hearing clowns like Bolton criticizing the news, they are reminded that the GOP puts its ideology even ahead of the well-being of innocent hostages.

Last but not necessarily least, all this hot air about "appeasement" and appearances seems to overlook the very real bottom line: if it becomes necessary to ratchet up the pressure on North Korea, they now no longer have two American hostages to threaten, mistreat, etc.

Surely if you're talking about real power balances and the use of force, that is a positive development from the U.S. point of view. But these right-wing gasbags are so caught up in attacking Obama they don't even evaluate the situation properly from what should be their point of view.

CNBC reported that they were flown out on one of those "evil" (oh so evil) corporate jets. This one owned by Dow Chemical. So evil are these jets that it forced the House to buy 3 of their own.

I had CNBC on all morning while the plane was landing, etc., and more than one of the CNBC hosts were echoing the RNC/neocon talking points as their way of framing it. Disgusting.

The key, actually, is that John Bolton, Sean Hannity and Dana Perino are all dicks.

I wish Tom Brokaw was still doing the news so I could hear him say "Euna Lee and Laura Ling".

>>we didn't have to give up anything
We gave up our moral authority.

Bolton and Hannity both warned against following the example of President Reagan, who pledged he would never trade arms for hostages, and who then traded arms for hostages.

...What, Bolton didn't mention Reagan trading arms for hostages? Hannity didn't mention that, either?

We could have resolved it in the traditional republican way instead.

Obama would give a bunch of speeches about how we "don't negotiate with terrorists" and secretly swap the reporters for their body weight in plutonium or something.