Passing the Buck on NKComm Nukes

No, I don't question Hillary Clinton's intelligence or political prowess, and yes, I will remain convinced until shown conclusive proof to the contrary that she is going to be the next president of the United States, but the dragon lady really doesn't help herself with lame deflections like this one:

New York Senator Hillary Clinton is blaming President Bush for the fact that North Korea can now hit the U.S. with nuclear missiles - after a top intelligence official told her Thursday that Kim Jong Il's ICBMs can now reach the Northwestern U.S.

"They couldn't do that when George Bush became president, and now they can," Mrs. Clinton complained to the New York Times.

To which the proper - well, the non-profane - response is, "So?" Perhaps she could point to the specific Bush policy that caused this to happen. She certainly didn't in this instance.

On the other hand, there's all kinds of evidence blaming this development squarely on her incontinent hubby.

The top Democrat pointed her finger at the Bush Administration despite a 1999 congressional finding that North Korea first obtained the capacity to develop nuclear weapons under her husband's administration, which actually gave Kim Jong Il nuclear technology in exchange for the promise that he would not make weapons.

A report compiled at the time by the House North Korea Advisory Group warned: "If the [Clinton administration's] 1994 Agreed Framework is implemented and two [U.S. Light Water Reactors] are eventually built and operated in North Korea, the reactors could produce close to 500 kilograms of plutonium in spent reactor fuel each year; enough for nearly 100 bombs annually if North Korea decides to break its obligations and reprocess the material."

The advisory group also blasted the Clinton administration for making North Korea "the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in the Asia-Pacific region."

"In an astonishing reversal of nine previous U.S. administrations," the report said, "the Clinton-Gore administration, in 1994, committed not only to provide foreign aid for North Korea, but to earmark that aid primarily for the construction of nuclear reactors worth up to $6 billion."

The advisory group also warned that North Korea would soon be able to hit the U.S. with ICBMs - and blamed the Clinton administration for facilitating Pyongyang's progress. [emphases mine]

The Bush Administration, for a change, didn't let the sun set on this smear either.

White House chief of staff Andrew Card fired back at New York Senator Hillary Clinton on Sunday, pointing out that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il obtained his first nuclear weapon while her husband was president.

After citing Mrs. Clinton's claim Friday that Pyongyang developed a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. during the Bush Administration, NBC's Meet the Press host Tim Russert asked Card:

"Could it be said that President Bush was so focused on Iraq that another far greater threat emerged - and that six nuclear bombs were developed by North Korea on his watch?"

Card shot back:

"Or on President Clinton's watch. Some of those weapons may well have been produced as they were violating the agreement they had with President Clinton. That's what a North Korean delegation said to an American diplomat. And they said it with great pride."

This is no different than the attempt by the left side of the 9/11 commission to blame Bush for the 9/11 attacks despite the fact that the al Qaeda offensive against the U.S. had been building over the entire course of Bill Clinton's presidency and he never once did anything about it. Or perhaps it's worse, because whereas on Islamist terrorism the Clintonoids were merely negligent, in the case of North Korea they actively assisted Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions on the (wink-wink/hee-hee/nod-nod) "promise" that these light-water reactors would "only" be used for "peaceful" purposes. And of course, this was of a piece with Clinton's failure to dispatch Saddam Hussein, or clamp down on Iran's nuclear ambitions, or his facilitation of wholesale ChiComm espionage in exchange for the generous funding of his 1996 re-election campaign. As I spent those years warning from my own modest little slice of what is now known as the blogosphere, Mr. Bill was leaving behind a foreign policy minefield for his successors to deal with that made a national calamity or three a very distinct possibility.

It's a part of his legacy to which one would think the ex-first lady would not be prone to want to call attention, especially in light of the vested interest she has in building up national security credentials that differ from those of John Kerry. Ditto trying to run against George W. Bush on the issue of the GWOT. That just isn't going to sell absent a WMD terrorist attack on our own soil, and maybe not even then.

I guess it's like training camp for professional athletes. If Hillary's going to make dumbass mistakes, three-plus years in advance is the time to make them.

All the same, though, I hope the folks down at the RNC have filed this away in the clip archive for future use. Because we're going to need all the ammunition we can get.