Ding-a-Ling

The bells are ringing for American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Convicted of hostile acts and sentenced to 12 years hard labor in North Korea, their sudden release was facilitated by former President Bill Clinton. Though his trip to Pyongyang was said to be “private,” a lot of back room diplomacy went into the deal and a lot of positive political capital came out. Aside from the obvious – two American women don’t have to spend 12 years digging ditches and eating Korean food - the Obama administration gets big points for acting like grown-ups, concerning itself more with potential human tragedy and less with potential political fallout; Clinton gets to buff up his somewhat tarnished legacy and wipe some of the shmutz off his reputation; and the American people get a happy ending, for the first time in a long time.

Predictably, just beyond the celebratory sound of church bells, the gloomy chant of Republican monks fills the airwaves. “It’s a disgrace! It’s humiliating! We’re rewarding North Korea for bad behavior!” Chronic commentator Pat Buchanan characterized the rescue as Kim Jong-il “whistling up” a former US president and forcing him to apologize. Whether or not Clinton actually apologized – the North Koreans say he did, Clinton says he didn’t – Buchanan and his friends see international diplomacy as a day at the O.K. Corral: if you don’t walk in shooting you just ain’t American enough. Which is so George W. Bush league.

I am equally sure that these two women were in North Korea illegally and that their trial and sentencing were pure political theater. That said, I am thrilled that they are out and that we finally have a someone in the White House who understands the meaning of the word “mench.”