Bush's Big Nyet

Fratto: "I think the Kremlin can speak for itself on what their intentions were. . . . "

Q. "Tony, is there any thought being given to somebody going to Moscow and talking directly with Russian leaders?"

Fratto: "I don't have any plans for that at this time that I'm aware of."

Q. "And why wouldn't somebody be doing that?"

Fratto: "That would be a decision for the President and his senior advisors to make, and I just -- I have nothing on that right now."

The Lame Duck Factor

Richard Cowan writes for Reuters: "President George W. Bush's waning influence on the world stage is encouraging Russia's show of military force in neighboring Georgia and move to recognize two rebel regions there as independent states.

"With less than five months left in the White House, Bush is entering the 'lame duck' period of his presidency facing new foreign policy challenges from both Russia and North Korea as he continues to struggle with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"'The fact that it's a period of transition in the U.S. certainly makes it easier for the Russians to act provocatively,' said Jeff Mankoff, adjunct fellow for Russian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. . . .

"'There was this narrow calculation of the American political calendar' by Russia, said Leon Aron, director of Russian studies at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington.

"Aron's scenario goes like this: with his influence sapped by the Iraq war, Bush 'will not be able to muster much of a response' to Russia's actions in the final months of his presidency."

Also contributing to the problem, of course, is that "[s]everal foreign affairs experts agree the Bush administration failed to give Russia enough attention almost from day one, and then gave contradictory signals."

Jonathan Manthorpe writes in the Vancouver Sun: "The rest of the world . . . has to ride the fallout from George W. Bush's evident yearning to be ploughing the back forty in Crawford rather than shuffling papers in the Oval Office."