I don’t know which is more disgusting: a) Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder — infamous for using his waning influence to profit by shilling on behalf of the Russians and Gazprom — lecturing the United States on our responsibility for Georgia, or b) Der Spiegel omitting Schröder’s obvious conflict-of-interest until brief mention in the last question of the interview. Schröder is one of the more odious world figures in recent memory, but a good reminder of the moral bankruptcy of much of what passes for European socialism. A few million Euros and one transmogrifies from a left-wing critic of America to a paid megaphone for Russian authoritarianism and a left-wing critic of America — and dresses it all up with the usual half-educated clichés about American unilateralism and the decline of the United States.