The power

Jimmy Carter learns that power trumps rhetoric:

KABKABIYA, Sudan, Oct. 3 -- Former president Jimmy Carter confronted Sudanese security officials Wednesday during a visit to the western region of Darfur, shouting, "You don't have the power to stop me!" at some who blocked him from meeting refugees of the conflict.

Carter, 83, wanted to visit a refugee camp in South Darfur state, but the U.N. mission in Sudan deemed that too dangerous. Instead, he agreed to fly to the World Food Program compound in the North Darfur town of Kabkabiya, where he was supposed to meet with refugees, many of whom had been chased from their homes by government forces and Janjaweed militiamen.

Actually, they did have the power. You'd have thought he learned something about force from the Iranian hostage debacle.

Carter was, hands down, the worst president of my lifetime; granted, Bush may give him a run for the money, but the jury is still out on that. He has also been a miserable ex-president, saying things about this country overseas that an ex-president shouuld not say overseas. But give him some credit here. In a time when most of us want to withdraw into Fortress America and the hell with the rest of the world, he was willing to go into the belly of the beast. There can be a fine line between righteous indignation and sanctimoniousness, but I think he was on the right side of the line.