Andy, if sweet talk were all it required to make Putin our friend, he would have been spending vacations in Crawford ever since Bush looked into his eyes and got “a sense of his soul.”

I’m all for national pride. I suspect in this instance, however, there is more at work: grievance over the loss of the power Russia enjoyed when it maintained the fiction that there was a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Here’s where you and I may agree: If Putin had been showing a cooperative spirit on vital issues, Cheney would probably have bitten his tongue and refrained from making that speech. (The State Department, you can be sure, would have strongly recommended that.)

But that has not been the case. Cheney demonstrated in that speech that Putin should not take it for granted that America will continue to view Russia as an ally no matter what. Cheney subtly suggested that perhaps Russia is not ready to be in the G8, taking its seat alongside democratic societies.

When Putin (or others) slap us, our response should not be: “Thank you, sir! May I have another?”