Shilling for the new Castro

The American Thinker ^ | Jan. 17, 2005 | Richard A. Baehr

[Kitten Festival]

Last week, three US Senators, Florida's Bill Nelson, Connecticut's Thomas Dodd, and Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee visited with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in Caracas, to try to assess the deteriorating state of US-Venezuelan relations. The three Senators left their meeting, reciting the need for improved relations, and describing how central was Venezuela's role in supplying oil to America.

The identical statements could have been uttered had the three Senators visited the sheikhs and princes in Saudi Arabia, of course. However, other than the many paid shills for Saudi Arabia in the think tanks and Middle East studies institutes in this country, the rapture for Saudi Arabia has fallen off among the political class since 9/11. America does get a fair share of its imported oil from Venezuela. But the recent problems between the two countries are not of America’s making. As even the mainstream American press has begun to report, Chavez is a bit of a megalomaniac, and is behaving like a thug. In Zimbabwean fashion, he has begun seizing land from large landowners. He has packed his Supreme Court, imprisoned political opponents (and criminalized anti-government demonstrations), and had a new law passed that would allow him to shut down opposition television and radio broadcasters, and intimidate newspapers and journalists in a fashion the mullahs in Teheran would admire. He just made a world tour of countries with no affection for democracy: China, Russia, Libya, Iran, and Cuba, among them, both to coordinate oil pricing, sales and production strategy, and to secure new advanced weaponry for his military.

[Kitten Festival]

A must must read, featured on Real Clear Politics today. The political implications for the three idiotic senators who paid a pilgrimage to worship the Thug of Caracas. It was putrid.

[Dolphy]

I sure would like to hear Nelson's explanation for his trip. He has a history of speaking coherently from time to time unlike his travel companions.

[So Cal Rocket]

Last week, three US Senators, Florida's Bill Nelson, Connecticut's Thomas Dodd, and Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee

This should be in Breaking News!! Thomas Dodd was thought to have died in 1971! (Or maybe their thinking of Chistopher Dodd?)

[So Cal Rocket]

Last week, three US Senators, Florida's Bill Nelson, Connecticut's Thomas Dodd, and Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee

This should be in Breaking News!! Thomas Dodd was thought to have died in 1971! (Or maybe their thinking of Chistopher Dodd?)