I think that a fair longterm assessment would demonstrate that the Saudis are our friends, and should be treated as such.
Their record is mixed. That's the best one can say for them. Yes, they've (mostly) kept the oil flowing for us. But they cut it off entirely in 1973. And they helped prevent us from finding the Khobar Tower bombers. And their dangerous (and thoroughly anti-American) subsidizing of Wahhabism around the world is well-documented. Go to the MEMRI site and read what the official Saudi press puts out for domestic consumption; it's hardly the rhetoric of a friend. Given this, they deserve to be treated with a great deal of suspicion and caution.
Russia is not acting as our friend now, they are simply desperate for Dollars.
The same may be said for the medieval, tottering House of Sa'ud.
Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit.com wrote, "Boo hoo. As a reader comments, this is like the Austrian line that 'Austria was Hitler's first victim.'"