There’s an old axiom from the intelligence community, “admit nothing, deny, counter-accuse,” that can be as useful in politics as it is in the shadowy espionage world. Faced with a high-level summit bound to scrutinize President Obama’s much-touted “reset” policy with the Soviet Union, that unimaginative tact ended up serving as the administration’s primary defense for a widely publicized engagement strategy which has accomplished little.

On Wednesday, the Foreign Policy Initiative hosted a panel of experts on the Russian Federation to examine the veracity of the administration’s bold claims about reset (analysis here), followed by a keynote speech by Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina). Several legitimate, pressing concerns were raised about the White House’s effusive engagement of Moscow, from arms control to human rights to the treatment of Russia’s democratic neighbors. Unfortunately, instead of responding to these concerns with meaningful counterpoints, the administration chose to attack DeMint personally.