Attorney General Kills Indictment of Bill Richardson

A Justice Department investigation into “Kim Jong Bill” Richardson for a pay to play scandal has reportedly been “killed in Washington,” which I infer to mean killed by Eric Holder. The decision comes shortly after Richardson’s former Secretary of State was indicted for her efforts “cover up a vast money laundering and embezzlement scheme.”

I haven’t seen the prosecutors’ case against Richardson, of course. How low must your moral stature must be if you ever find yourself arranging the chair on your patio to give the cameras a perfectly posed shot of your pleasantries with the emissaries of a regime that does this to human beings?

[Photo: Wall Street Journal]

I wonder if Bill Richardson has ever thought to ask himself what it means that people as extraordinarily sensitive to an easy mark as the North Koreans have continued to seek him out for years after the expiration of his position in Bill Clinton’s cabinet. The fact that his little diversion was to no effect suggests that it has occurred to someone in power in Washington. We know that Hillary Clinton is no fan of Richardson, but it seems fair to give due credit to President Obama and his administration for not letting Richardson’s reach for gravitas and self-aggrandizement disrupt the president’s patient construction of the first semi-coherent North Korea policy since 1985.

Really, North Korea’s sudden desperation to sideline the elected leaders of America and South Korea (Richardson, the Clinton visit, the Hyundai hostage deal) suggests that it hears the baying of the hounds from all sides. Look for North Korea to continue to divide the nations enforcing sanctions against it by offering separate appeals to each of them.