Obama Muzzles Gore, Richardson

Apparently, Secretary of State Clinton thinks one Special Envoy is plenty:

The New Mexico governor, who negotiated the return of Americans from North Korea in the 1990s, was a ubiquitous presence in the early days of the crisis, but on Monday, he abruptly went dark and is now refusing all media requests, Caitlin Kelleher, a spokeswoman, said.

His silence, people following the situation closely said, is part of a broader administration strategy to handle the delicate situation with immense care and as low a public profile as possible.

“Everyone understands that it’s a very sensitive diplomatic situation and the need to proceed cautiously as we move forward and attempt to secure the release of the two journalists,” said Fred Jones, a spokesman for Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), who has not commented on the situation. [Ben Smith, Politico Blog]

Not only that, the Administration is also holding Al Gore in some undisclosed location, and that can never be a bad thing.

Former US Vice-President Al Gore wanted to go to North Korea to try to secure the release of two  journalists  Laura Ling and Euna Lee  at the company he founded, Current TV.

But he was “held back” from going  because Secretary of State  Hillary Clinton’s  would not agree to provide the  diplomatic backing  according to  Selig Harrison from the Center for International Policy.  [Daniel Ryntjes, FNS Reporters’ Blog]

Hey, the fact that Selig Harrison is the source doesn’t necessarily make it false.  Worse yet, Jesse Jackson has pronounced himself read to go.  I’m sure that Barack Obama trusts him completely.

Me:  Obama and Clinton are right to keep these guys quiet.  While I don’t doubt that they have their own ulterior motives and grudges as well, let’s give them the benefit of being shrewd enough to understand that North Korea has always used these special-special envoys as propaganda foils and tools to extract additional concessions from our government.  The converse is also true:  if Richardson, Gore, and Jackson have grudges of their own with the current administration, it creates motives for them to try to undercut our official negotiators in their dealings with the North Koreans, to raise their own statures and embarrass domestic political enemies.

Assuming, of course, that North Korea will even agree to meet with them.

“Kim Jong Bill” Richardson, who may or may not still be under an ethical cloud, has a history of using these psychotic mass murders for political photo ops.  The most disastrous of these “unofficial” visits must have been Jimmy Carter’s in 1994, after which point Kim Il Sung felt safe to croak out “go nuclear” on his death bed.