Albright even claimed that attempts to expel or even assassinate Yasser Arafat show Bush failure: "You know he is now the center of attention, he's throwing kisses at people." But no one threw more kisses at Yasser Arafat than the Clinton team, who invited him into our presidential home more than any other foreign leader. But Couric didn't ask about that, or about the Clinton record on al-Qaeda. She stuck to an anti-Bush script: "Iraq ... What went wrong?"

CBS's "Early Show" also failed to challenge Albright with evidence from recent books questioning the effectiveness of Clinton anti-terror policy. Harry Smith could only ask like a pal: "In your most quiet private moments, have you ever thought 'This is the diplomatic do-over that I want back'? … 'If I could have the opportunity to take one more crack at it, what would it be?'" Cocky Albright gave no examples and had no September 11 regrets: "I think I had a pretty good run."

Time magazine had more bouquets for Albright, swooning that there was "hardly a hint of score-settling" in her memoir and remarking on her collection of "pins that make political statements." Time's J.F.O. McAllister did ask if there was "neglect" by the Clintonites on the terror threat, but that was just the exception to the rule. He also inquired: "Bush's foreign policy started as 'Anything But Clinton' in almost every area -- the Middle East, North Korea, China. Now, events have pushed it back much closer to your approach. Do you ever succumb to schadenfreude?" Albright replied she couldn't delight in another's misfortune: "No, I'm much too kind and generous a person."

Not every interview was supine. On "Meet the Press," NBC's Tim Russert read from Richard Miniter's "Losing Bin Laden." On "Late Edition," CNN's Wolf Blitzer brought up the conservative argument that if the Democrats were in power, "Saddam Hussein would die of old age before he were removed." Albright's answer: "Well, that might not have been bad either." After all the mass graves and children's prisons and horror stories, after all the revelations of Saddam sheltering terrorists and paying off suicide bombers, a continuation of all that "might not have been bad"? Thank God she's gone.

Whoever said it was the liberals who were the idealists and the humanitarians? They may parade their generous natures and good intentions, but their foreign policy legacies are atrocious. No wonder reporters want to ignore them.