Hugo Chavez and where we're going
Why is everyone so surprised when a glorified thug steps on American soil and calls the President of the United States the devil?
It's nothing we haven't seen or heard before, on the streets of our cities and within the eye of a protest.
Americans have been saying it all the time, but when a Venezuelan dictator says it, well, now, the president's oppisition is annoyed.
I applaud Nancy Pelosi and Charles Rangel for standing up against Chavez (where's everybody else, though?).
My concern however is what hasn't been said. Chavez could have gotten his speech from www.moveon.org, and if the speech had been delivered by a member of that establishment, would the senators have blinked?
I suppose there's an argument that only Americans can bash Bush in America, and I can see that -- to a point.
But these comments are just as destructive. I'm told we, as Americans, are hated all over the world because of the president's policies. But when Americans themselves march holding signs with swastikas, the Democratic senators appear content to let that go.
(Free speech is free speech, but shouldn't some Democrats distance themselves from that? Some, like Joe Lieberman, have, but when Michael Moore has a booth at the convention, there's a problem).
What does that say to the rest of the world? When half the country's leadership refuses to stand up and say, "Bush is not a Nazi, Bush is not an evil man," why would some in the world believe any differently?
I am happy the senators rebutted Chavez's remarks. I just wonder where the defense has been for the last three years.