Please, Not Another Jimmy Carter Jaunt to North Korea

What is the definition of insanity?

When Jimmy Carter was President he was luckier than future Presidents, he didn't have to contend with ex-president Carter and his "help."

The Rosett Report » Please, Not Another Jimmy Carter Jaunt to North Korea

by Claudia Rosett 4-20-11

It would be an act of mercy for the planet were Jimmy Carter to hang up his carry-on bag and devote the rest of his days to annotating his post-presidential grocery lists, or maybe sign up for Dancing With the Stars — anything where he might at least do no more harm. Instead, in some eternal quest to live out that second presidential term which American voters in their belated wisdom snatched from him in 1980, Carter goes on and on, glad-handing thugs and hugging terrorists, from Caracas to Gaza to Havana. According to recent news reports, he’s now planning another trip to North Korea — possibly as soon as next week.

ot that North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Il seems to regard a visit from Carter as much of a trophy these days. In 2009, when Pyongyang was haggling over terms for the release of two Al Gore employees who had moseyed onto North Korean turf, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, North Korean officials turned down a potential rescue mission by Jimmy Carter....They viewed Carter as washed-up and out of office for too long — a retread unfit to grace a photo-op dignifying Kim Jong Il. “Carter, Carter, Carter!” one official told her. “You have upset many people by asking for Carter.” They held out instead for the bigger prize of a visit by Bill Clinton.

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But Carter thought he’d done the world a great favor. And last November, in an op-ed in the Washington Post, he made it clear that he’s raring to repeat his 1994 feat of useful-idiot nuclear brokering with Pyongyang. Enough already. If Carter wants to play U.S. envoy to North Korea, then let’s see him go the official route, including a White House nomination and the chance for American voters to witness a full review of his foreign policy record at a public confirmation hearing. At the very least, it might help remind the White House that a Jimmy Carter stamp on foreign policy is no asset, heading into the 2012 election.

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