Mr. President, With All Respect, Shut Up!

In the Oval Office, Jimmy Carter was an embarrassment. After being suckered by Fidel Castro into importing Cuba’s criminals and mentally ill during the Mariel boatlift, Carter ended up doing fireside chats on TV in a cardigan, puzzling over a “national malaise.”

Now he just can’t seem to stop babbling. Last month he managed to overstate George Bush’s awfulness to the point of having to apologize for his “careless” remarks.

Now, when it seems impossible to make matters worse in the Palestinian mess, Carter strikes again by denouncing as “criminal” U.S. failure to work with the criminals in Hamas to help them destroy the more conciliatory Fatah faction.

Our choices in Palestine are terrible, but Carter’s self-righteous, simple-minded bumbling can only complicate them further. Former Presidents, particularly failed ones, are better seen and not heard.