Yes but why is the Bush administration playing the same b.s. game?
Because it is lame duck, the Dems won last November, lots of key, bedrock conservatives/hawks left the Bush Administration, and now the final focus is only on "legacy" (i.e. cutting Maddy Albright type deals with the DPRK) rather than adhering to the original "Axis of Evil" philosophy of pressure and non-appeasement. It will get even WORSE under President Clinton from 2009.