Better to be lucky than competent

If this is true, than even when the Cheney administration is once again letting a bad, but manageable situation grow much, much worse, they are once again getting very lucky.

While the test itself was a sign of North Korea's defiance of the United States, for the administration, the outcome was as favorable as officials could have hoped for: the North's capacity was called into question, and the North's enigmatic leader, Kim Jong Il, has now put himself at odds with the two countries that have provided him aid, China and South Korea. [...]

The launching also makes it difficult for the South Koreans to continue their policy of providing aid and investment to the North, a program that has caused deep rifts with Washington. Administration officials said that Christopher R. Hill, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the main negotiator with North Korea, would leave for Asia on Wednesday, and that they expected him to use the launchings to try to bring South Korea and China into the fold on imposing some kind of sanctions.

At the same time, the launching is likely to strengthen the hand of hard-liners in the Bush administration who have long argued that the six-party talks were bound to fail. They now have what one American diplomat called "a clear runway" to press for a gradually escalating series of sanctions, which some officials clearly hope will bring down Mr. Kim's government.

But it is far from clear that China — which provides the North with its oil and much of its food — would go along with any move for sanctions. [...]

Wednesday's tests are likely to increase calls inside Japan to strengthen its missile defense efforts with the United States, and could increase support for hawkish candidates in the race to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who is scheduled to retire in September.

Not only that, but it gives Republicans a whole slew of campaign bluster, most notably, more crowing about a missile defense shield, no matter how inefficacious. Karl Rove and the administration don't so much make lemonade from the lemons they've received, as have it airlifted to them, in syrup form, requiring only the addition of water.