The coverage continues onward and will, you can bet, until the elections are over.

This administration knows exactly what went on over there. It also knows that by sending Condi Rice to China and Russia, it is choreographing all the right moves to appease the world and make the proper superficial diplomatic outreach.

However, Rice's trip to China and Russia is a sham. Does anybody really expect it to bear fruit? If so, I have some beachfront property for sale here in St. George I think you'd be interested in.

We cannot embrace a six-party summit on this issue. A real meeting between China, Russia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and the United States, where everybody lays their true cards on the table, would result in more hostilities. Japan and the U.S. are the hardliners on one side, North Korea, China and Russia the hardliners on the other, with South Korea stuck in a woeful No-man's Land.

Rice's shuttle diplomacy efforts amount to nothing more than tripe and a reason, aha! to continue the nuclear discussion in a fearful direction. The crisis will continue as an effort to guide voters back to the Republicans who are, as the popular lie goes, the vanguard of defense of this country's principles and freedoms, ultimately securing their case to develop more new and terrible nuclear weapons.

This time, there really are WMDs. This time, there really is a threat. This time, there is a real coalition of the willing.

Let's not allow arrogance to blind us. And, for all our sake, let's not politicize this growing crisis.