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Condi Rice’s comments on Korea contained no major surprises. We want talks; we have no intention of invading. A nice word in there about the South Korean deployment to a safe location guarded by Kurdish militia Iraq. All things you’d expect a diplomat to say.

She was generally prepared, but even when she was, her answers sounded canned and tinny. My overall impression, however, was dissatisfaction that she didn’t really answer some of Babs Boxer’s tough questions on Iraq, but merely accused Boxer of impugning her credibility. The questions were more “gotcha” than substance, but they were substantial enough to merit an answer, specifically Rice’s arguably inconsistent statements on Iraqi nukes. I’m a supporter of the war and certainly no fan of Boxer, but Rice won’t be able to hide behind outrage for four years.

I was also reminded of what a complete ass John Kerry is; his election loss is the strongest case yet for the Intelligent Design theory. After all that time in the presence of Joe Lockhart and Mary Beth Cahill, you’d think Kerry would have internalized the fact that he’s constitutionally incapable of humor. His spray-on personality from the debates has long since washed off. Clearly bitter over losing a close election, he continued to show far more aptitude for whining than recognizing and proposing real solutions–case in point, his limpet-like clinging to the spurious myth that we alienated French and German “allies” who would have just loved to put their troops into combat in Iraq. It couldn’t possibly be clearer to me that France in particular wanted Saddam to stay in power, sold him weapons on the very eve of the war, and prefers to have us mired in Iraq.

The Cold War is over. Yesterday’s ally could be today’s rival–and vice versa.

UPDATE I: CrushKerry still has a reason to exist after all; it convincingly refutes one patently false statement from Babs Boxer at yesterday’s hearing: her assertion that the Senate’s vote to authorize the Iraq war (Babs voted “no”) was all about the WMD’s. It wasn’t, although given the press coverage during the election, a non-senator could be forgiven for thinking that. So that settles it. Barbara Boxer is absolutely not qualified to be our Secretary of State. I wish Condi had just stabbed her with this point and then given her that Angela Bassett glare she sometimes has.

UPDATE II: “Axis of Evil” “Outposts of Tyranny”: I let C-SPAN run in the background while I played with my kids last night, but I somehow I missed this beaut:

“To be sure, in our world, there remain outposts of tyranny, and America stands with oppressed people on every continent,” she said, naming Cuba, Burma, North Korea, Iran, Belarus and Zimbabwe.

A nice, undiplomatic thing of her to say, and it brought a predatory grin to my bloodthirty, war-mongering hawk-beak, although I did pause to visualize the subsequent party at the Syrian Embassy–no doubt many champagne corks popped and many counterfeit c-notes stuffed into the pockets of staffers before they were sent home early. And China? T’is too much to ask, you say. Tyrannies don’t have nukes or a trade surplus. Thomas Barnett, Washington’s fad geostrategist of the week (the Dr. Atkins of geostrategy! ©), assures us that China is “connected” to the world and that–I’m actually quoting here–“[L]et me assure you that China’s ruling Communist Party will not survive to see [the day that China has a true ocean-going navy].” Page 74. So that settles that, does it?

*cough* Saudi Arabia?

So how did the Chosun Ilbo miss the whole “outpost of tyranny” thing? Were all their writers playing with their kids, too, or are they in denial? Just wondering.

UPDATE: Ahhhh, that’s better. Ask and ye shall receive.