In the wake of Bill Clinton's successful trip to North Korea to secure the release of jailed journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, some Republicans couldn't wait to express their hearty congratulations on a job well done:
- "It comes perilously close to negotiating with terrorists," [John] Bolton said.
- Fox News’ Dick Morris called Clinton’s trip "awful" and "ridiculous" and suggested that Ling and Lee should "live with the consequences of their decision to go" to North Korea.
- Charles Krauthammer complained that North Korea "got a lot" out of the deal and that "it does help the North Koreans in their legitimacy."
You get the idea.
And perhaps realizing that their rightwing brethren were sounding a little harsh about the safe return of two American citizens who had been imprisoned by a branch of the "Axis of Evil," the Wall Street Journal editorial page decided to be a little more subtle.