Today we have John Kerry laying the groundwork for an attack on Syria, but not so long ago Kerry was a big fan of Assad’s.

[S]taffers describe their collective cringe when, after a motorcycle ride with Bashar al-Assad, he returned to Washington referring to Bashar as “my dear friend.” Bashar may be a lot of things, but “my dear friend”—an address Kerry used only with a select few, such as the late Ted Kennedy—should not have been one.