Posted on 6/21/2007, 7:07:59 AM by 2ndDivisionVet
Presidential candidate John Edwards hoped actor Danny Glover would be his Lethal Weapon.
But a Miami-based group of Venezuelan-American activists chided the Democratic candidate Wednesday for campaigning with Glover, who has embraced repressive Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. ''We are saddened by the fact that you have proudly showed yourself, in the same manner Mr. Chavez showed himself next to Mr. Glover, as if both of you were holding a trophy,'' read the letter sent to Edwards. ``We believe this to be a political miscalculation on your part, as it sends contradicting messages to those who, like us, have chosen and sworn to uphold the democratic and moral values of our new homeland.''
The Venezuelan government has agreed to provide $18 million in financing for Glover's upcoming movie about Toussaint Louverture, leader of an 18th-century slave rebellion in Haiti. Chávez critics fear the venture will burnish his international reputation.
GIULIANI ISSUE
Ernesto Ackerman, who was among the nine people who signed the letter to Edwards, also has raised concerns about Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani's law firm doing business with a subsidiary of the Venezuelan oil company controlled by Chávez. Giuliani does not personally lobby for Citgo, though he is a senior partner at the firm and shares in its profits.
''John Edwards is making a big mistake getting together with Danny Glover,'' Ackerman said. ``It's a negative for any campaign, Democrat or Republican.''
REACTION
Glover, star of the Lethal Weapon movies with Mel Gibson, stumped with Edwards two weeks ago in South Carolina and introduced him at the National Conference of Black Mayors in Louisiana in May. The longtime civil-rights activist and former vice-presidential nominee bonded when they toured the country in 2006 to help hotel workers organize.
''Of course John Edwards rejects Hugo Chávez's increasingly authoritarian policies,'' Edwards spokesman Eric Schultz said in a written statement. ``However, John Edwards does agree with Danny Glover that workers need rights, 37 million people in this country should not live in poverty and we need real, universal health care. John Edwards doesn't have to agree with someone on every issue to stand with them on the ones that he does.''
The Bush administration said last year that Venezuela was ''not cooperating fully'' with antiterrorism efforts, stopping one step short of grouping the country with state sponsors of terrorism like Iran, Syria and Cuba. Chávez has condemned President Bush as a ''devil'' and staged an anti-American rally in Buenos Aires during the president's tour of Latin America earlier this year.
Most recently, Chávez has faced criticism for shutting down a television station that challenged his regime.
Edwards is a sack of excrement. So is Glover.
Interesting how the Herald tried to make the organization, not Edwards, the story: “Group is not a lover of Glover.” This is not only an unfair headling, but also lousy journalism. Few people will read a story with this vague, clumsily worded headline. Whoever wrote it probably wasn’t deliberately trying to reduce readership, but he or she clearly thought it was a ridiculous story calling for a ridiculous headline. Media bias often works in such a way — with the same result as if it were deliberately ideological.
Funny...the BETH REINHARD article headline has changed to, “Miami group blasts John Edwards for working with Danny Glover.”
Useful idiots for the cause of worldwide Marxist oppression. Glover is the latter-day Paul Robeson. Both are abominations and traitors to the cause of freedom.
You know John, we wouldn't need universal health care if it hadn't been for those like you who sued doctors into high insurance rates.
After all, Haiti turned out so well.
“Glover is the latter-day Paul Robeson. Both are abominations and traitors to the cause of freedom.”
Glover, moreso than Robeson. At least, Robeson was a victim of Jim Crow. Glover is simply a fool, wishing that he really was a victim of something, or other, rather than a recipient of America’s bounty. This fact haunts him.
He’s not ever going to be the Dem candidate. He’s too busy coming up with new ways to lop himself off at the knees so that the opposition doesn’t have to. He’s such a nifong (self-destructive).
I went to Rutgers-Newark for undergrad. The main building was "Paul Robeson Hall". I was absolutely clueless about Robeson until many years afterwards. I guess I wasn't indoctrinated properly. The reverse actually happened. I became a conservative at 12 years old because I was able to see the difference between Reagan and Carter. Then I took an economics class at Rutgers-Newark taught by a disciple of Friedman-that sealed the deal for me.
I’m glad they’re making a movie about the first independent nation in the America’s but Glover is going to screw it up somehow and there is no way I’d watch a movie about Chavez.
Much better.
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