"The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) is a consortium of the United States, South Korea, Japan, and various other states that is responsible for implementating the energy-related parts of the agreement.

It is reported that US President Bill Clinton's officials agreed to the plan only because they thought that the North Korean government would collapse before the nuclear power project was completed [4]. North Korean officials at the time also suspected the U.S. anticipated an early collapse of the DPRK [5]. North Korea's leader Kim Il-sung had recently died.

Soon after the agreement was signed, U.S. Congress control changed to the Republican Party, who did not support the agreement. Some Republican Senators were strongly against the agreement, regarding it as appeasement [6] [7]. Initially U.S. Department of Defense emergency funds not under Congress control were used to fund the transitional oil supplies under the agreement [8], together with international funding. From 1996 Congress provided funding, though not always sufficient amounts [9]. Consequently some of the agreed transitional oil supplies were delivered late.

Some analysts believe North Korea agreed to the freeze primarily because of the U.S. agreement to phase out economic sanctions that had been in place since the Korean War. But because of congressional opposition, the U.S. failed to deliver on this part of the agreement. [10]International funding for the LWR replacement power plants had to be sought. Significant spending on the LWR project did not commence until 2000. [11]

There was increasing disagreement between North Korea and U.S. on the scope and implementation of the treaty. When by 1999 economic sanctions had not been lifted and full diplomatic relations between U.S. and North Korea had not been established, North Korea warned that they would resume nuclear research unless the U.S. kept up its end of the bargain."

From Wikipedia

For ahort time I had hopes that the Senator was seeing the light when he critized the Gitmo mentality of the Bushits. How wrong I was ! He is just another repugnicant politian who tries to blame the stupidity of Bushits decisions on anybody but the Gay Odd Party. Evidently my hopes were misplaced. Staying with the misinterpretation of axis by Bush, could we call his adminstration the axis of stupity?

I saw John McCain on a morning show today replaying the same talking points that it's all political and that we should give Bush a chance before we criticize.

I'm sick and tired of politicians from both sides and sometimes the middle evading discourse by simply suggesting that 'it's political motivated and therefore doesn't really merit discussion'. Wake up, it's all political. I generally assume that politicians are highly politically motivated, especially during an election season. Duh!

So John, yes it's political, we assume that. What is woefully lacking is a place for rational discourse around the issues. This administration and their several alliances continue to either suggest that they are above scrutiny and/or avoid scrutiny by playing the 'it's just political card'. We should be especially concerned about this, given that this president has a history and deserved reputation of failing to participate in thorough analysis (before and after the fact) and avoiding any kind of meaningful reflection that might foster consideration of the relative effectiveness of policies and decisions.

They have avoided fact finding about the lead up to the War in Iraq, Valerie Plame disclosure, warrantless spying, port security, and the Katrina response to name a few. They enthusiastically continued to support individuals with serious ethical problems (Delay, Hastert, Libby, Rove) and glaring ineptitude (Brown, Rumsfield) even in the face of reasonable evidence that should give a rationale person sufficient reason to question the wisdom of continued support.

Finally, Senator McCain, was it political for you to cozy up and make nice with Falwell to tap into that base for support? Sure. Yes, you're a political beast, but it's time for some serious fact-checking. And, no based on his track record and his lack of critical reflection, Bush does not deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Tony Snow represents all that is wrong with this administration. He was chosen and appointed for all the behaviors we currently see him display. He appears to have substance and information but he uses both to cloak the truth. He appears to be communicating while actually directing the conversation in his direction. He appears approachable but he maintains a solid defensive posture to being involved. He deserves his nickname of "Snowjob".

The statue of limitations for blaming Bill Clinton for every foregin policy the Bush administration ran out when Condolezza Rice and Bush ignored warnings about Osama Bin Laden. The statue of limitations for giving Bush the benefit of doubt ran out when there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

the only thing giant about McCain is his ego. His conscience he left somewhere in South Carolina in 2000, and has turned into a disgusting fellating Bush toady. Other than that, he's fine. I'd say he has no chance at becoming Preznit, but Ray-gun got there, and so did Georgie Thunderpussy, at least the second time through the Diebold Machine. As far as famous quotes, let's go with "no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." The dumbing down is gettin' dumber by the year. Ask Joe.

The Yamamoto quote [which apparently can't be verified] is actually "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." Recently, Bill Clinton was blamed for failures for which the current administration at the very least shared responsibility, and more likely exacerbated through both inaction and by refusing to deviate from a script written well before they took office. These finger-pointers, too, found they had awoken a sleeping giant and when the dust had settled the American public refused to let Bush walk away from blame for 9/11. In fact, after Clinton's widely publicized response, the lion's share of the blame was placed on the current administration. Let's hope Clinton uses this opportunity to put McCain firmly in his place, first by supplying the facts that neither McCain nor Fox news are apparently interested in providing, and then by decisively pointing out what a political panderer McCain has become in his effort to score points with Bush's ultra-ideological religious base. Then let's hope that the republicans don't learn a thing, and continue to rile Bill Clinton for the next two years.