Bad precedent?

I've been watching with interest the news of former POTUS Bill Clinton making a "surprise" trip to North Korea to negotiate the release of the two Current TV journalists -- Laura Ling and Euna Lee -- caught trespassing into the North a few months ago.

ABC News says this trip has been in the works for weeks, and I think it's probably clear that Clinton made sure the two journalists would be freed before he ever agreed to make the trip. All the rest, it appears, will be a formality, and in a few days -- hopefully sooner rather than later -- Lee and Ling will return home to the states.

While I'm happy to see two fellow citizens come back, spared more than a dozen years in a hard labor camp, I can't help but worry about the precedent this trip may set. North Korea loves the attention this has been getting for them. To attract a former president, and "benevolently" release two prisoners who admitted to trespassing, makes us look a little foolish.

According to ABC's report, North Korea wanted two things: 1. An apology. 2. A high-profile dignitary to make a visit.

As for the apology. That's clearly not a problem for the Obama Administration. They've been selling apologies at Wal-Mart on the clearance rack all year.

And the high-profile dignitary? Bill Clinton needed something to inject himself back into the public scene as a hero and win a foreign policy victory for the Obama Administration. So I guess it all worked out.

I'm just not convinced that other rogue nations won't think they can pull our chains in a similar fashion in the future.