Bam’s Russia Letter a Piñata for the Republicans

…and it didn’t take long for them to come out swinging.  The funny part is to imagine how much flak he would be getting if the letter/offer to Medvedev were actually successful.  From the incomparably moderate and measured minds at FOX News:

BRET BAIER, HOST: What is that gesture? They’re talking about a not-so-secret letter now from President Obama to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in which the U.S. would essentially abandon ballistic missile sites in Poland and the Czech Republic in return for Russia’s effort to get Iran to abandon its apparent pursuit of nuclear weapons. What about this? Let’s bring in our panel: Juan Williams, senior correspondent of National Public Radio, Nina Easton, Washington bureau chief of Fortune Magazine, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer. Charles, you’re take?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: This is smart diplomacy?This is a debacle. The Russians dismissed it contemptuously.Look, if we could get the Iranian nuclear program stopped withRussian’s helping us in return for selling out the Poles and the Czechson missile defense, I’m enough of a cynic and a realist to say we woulddo it the same way that Kissinger agreed to de-legitimize andde-recognize Taiwan in return for a large strategic opening with China.But Kissinger had it done. He had it wired.

What happened here is it was leaked. The Russians have dismissed it. Weend up being humiliated. We look weak in front of the Iranians and wehave left the Poles and Czechs out to dry in return for nothing.The Czechs and the Poles went out on a limb, exposed themselves toRussian pressure and we have shown that Eastern Europe is not assovereign as it appears if the Russian influence is there and we willacquiesce in what they consider their own sphere of influence.

This administration has prided itself, flattered itself on deploying”smart diplomacy.” Smart diplomacy is a meaningless idea, but if it hasany meaning at all, it is not ever doing something as humiliating,amateurish and stupid as this.A strong letter to follow.