State Department

Jimmy Carter's talks with Hamas trigger a feud with the State Department.

Is there any living ex-president you'd less want to be trapped with on a desert island than Jimmy Carter? Judged by that yardstick, his possible prosecution under the Logan Act for his latest act of freelance diplomacy in the Middle East -- as some have come close to suggesting -- seems like a great idea. But let's be serious: the best thing you could do with this 209-year-old statute is junk it.

The uses of diplomacy

Today Jendayi Frazer, the top US diplomat for African affairs, rendered a grim assessment of the post-election bloodbath in Kenya, saying it amounted to "ethnic cleansing," but not "genocide."  This distinction is so fine as to be described as "Talmudic," except that it contains no ancient Hebraic wisdom or indeed any other system of thought. MORE