The Biden administration blew another one.

Russia got Joe Biden to hand over Viktor "the Merchant of Death" Bout, imprisoned for global-scale arms trafficking, for WNBA star Brittney Griner, jailed on a pot-possession conviction.

One-for-one.

This was the worst trade since the New York Yankees obtained Babe Ruth, the greatest baseball player of all time, from the Boston Red Sox for $100,000 and a $300,000 loan to finance the musical comedy No, No, Nanette.

No, no kidding. (Led by Ruth, the Yankees would go on to win an incredible seven pennants in the next 15 seasons.)

This Griner-Bout trade forced White House adviser John Kirby to attempt to deflect criticism of the deal. Especially since it left Paul Whelan, an ex-Marine, to rot in a Russian penal colony over a bogus espionage conviction.

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Kirby remarked: "Mr. Bout wasn't serving a life sentence. He was going to get out in 2029. So, at some point in the not-too-distant future, he would have been a free man.”

Kirby added of Bout, "Nobody over at the White House is doing backflips of joy that he is walking the streets. But this was the deal we could get. Now was the moment we could get it."

Maybe not.

Russian media mocked the Biden administration mercilessly for the deal, amused that it was O.K. with leaving Whelan locked up if it meant securing the release of Griner, a “lesbian of color.”

Kirby’s preposterously lame excuse that the Merchant of Death was going to be released “at some point in the not-too-distant future,” boggles the mind and beggars description. The arms dealer/weapons smuggler was going to get out in only about seven years, anyway?!

Why not let all convicted criminals out of prison right now if they haven’t been given the death penalty or life in prison? I mean, they’re going to get out at some point, anyway, right?

For that matter, why make a hockey player serve say, two, five, or 10 minutes in the penalty box if he’s going to eventually get out anyway? What’s the point?

And, you know, the coronavirus was probably going to escape the Wuhan lab at some point in the future anyway, so……

Image: Screen shot of Washington Post / TASS video, via YouTube