(h/t Heather)

Barack Obama's Senior Foreign Policy Advisor Susan Rice appeared on Friday's Morning Joe to discuss foreign policy, and more specifically North Korea's destruction of a long-defunct nuclear cooling tower yesterday. The Scar thought this was a huge diplomatic victory for George Bush, but Rice sets him straight, reminding him that North Korea's nuclear program expanded by leaps and bounds under Bush's watch and that if he would have opened negotiations years earlier, much of this could have been avoided in the first place.

Joe pretends to be a middle of the road kind of guy, but when he gets punked, especially by a Democrat, it drives him crazy and his true, far-right colors always come through. As Rice goes down the laundry list of Bush failures, Joe gets snippy with her, and even stoops so low as to hurl an insult at Jimmy Carter in the process. NBC's David Gregory chimes in at the end of the segment and drops a question on Rice that was pulled directly from Karl Rove's playbook:

Gregory: "Hello, Susan. While we are talking about the prospect of nuclear terrorism, which is what is behind the concerns of North Korea and Iran. I have a broader question for you and really for Senator Obama. Why is it, does he believe that America has not been attacked in this country by terrorists since 9/11? And does George W. Bush, President Bush deserve credit for that?"

Rice: "I think what we have to acknowledge, David, that we haven't been attacked but we are nonetheless less safe as a sequence of the policies of this administration has pursued. Our standing in the world is at an all-time low. Al Qaeda is more dangerous now in Afghanistan and Pakistan than it has been. Our intelligence community is warning they are reconstituting and more deadly to U.S. forces than Iraq."

Of course, Gregory is incorrect, there HAS been a deadly terrorist attack in the U.S. since 9/11 -- the anthrax attacks that killed 5 Americans ring a bell to you? It's interesting that so many seem to forget this factoid. Speaking of anthrax and Bush failures, you'll be happy to learn that $5.8 million of your tax dollars were just awarded to Steven Hatfill in his lawsuit against the Bush Justice Department. Hatfill is an Army scientist who was deemed a "Person of Interest" in the anthrax attacks, but was eventually ruled out as a suspect in the Bush administration's botched investigation. Hatfill's lawyer placed partial blame on the media for not questioning the Bush administration's motives in targeting him and for reporting leaked disinformation they could not substantiate.