Free Republic

PRESIDENT George W Bush is a “jerk”. His administration is a “mafia of assassins”. And, according to Hugo Chavez, the belligerent populist president of Venezuela, Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, lies in bed at night dreaming of him. Chavez, 50, is rapidly becoming a US nightmare in Latin America. He aroused further American anger last week by threatening to form a nuclear alliance with Iran. The prospect of two hostile, oil-rich governments working together against US interests has shocked Washington and plunged relations with Venezuela to a dangerous new low. US officials have begun to suspect that Chavez...

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...