THE SAMARITANLESS PARTY (via Gene Brown):

A 2008 underdog worthy of our attention (JOEL CONNELLY, 5/18/07, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

New Mexico Gov. Bill] Richardson is just back from his sixth journey to North Korea, the so-called Hermit Kingdom, where he headed a bipartisan delegation that secured the remains of six U.S. servicemen killed in the Korean War. [...]

How do you deal with a Stalinist dynasty headed by a film-buff dictator who quaffs French cognac and dines on lobster while his country is on starvation rations?

"It isn't rationally led," Richardson said. "It is one of the poorest nations on Earth. It is an agricultural country, yet there is no mechanization. On my last visit, I didn't see a tractor.

"Kim Jong Il has made a fundamental decision to move into the 21st century. He will accept a deal where they start to give up nuclear weapons. In return, North Korea gets an armistice, a formal end to the Korean War, and the assurance it doesn't get attacked. They get food, they get energy assistance."

Richardson condemns the Bush administration for its "axis of evil" rhetoric...

It's a shame that the Democrats are so reactionary that they're willing to accept such a degraded status for the people of North Korea just because George Bush doesn't.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 19, 2007 10:17 AM