Democrats defending the devil?

On Wednesday, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez scorchingly criticized President Bush before the United Nations, calling him the "devil" and accusing the president of speaking "as if he owned the world." Harsh rhetoric, to be sure, especially before the worthless UN -- but I couldn't really disagree with Chavez.

What really confuses me, however, is that the next day, some of Bush's fiercest domestic critics leapt to his defense, vilifying Chavez.

"You don't come into my country; you don't come into my congressional district and you don't condemn my president," said Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY).

Rangel continued, saying "If there's any criticism of President Bush, it should be restricted to Americans, whether they voted for him or not. I just want to make it abundantly clear to Hugo Chavez or any other president: Don't come to the United States and think, because we have problems with our president, that any foreigner can come to our country and not think that Americans do not feel offended when you offend our chief of state."

What the fuck? Only Americans have the right to criticize President Bush? Why is that our exclusive right? Bush has asserted his powers to invade another sovereign nation without authority from the United Nations. He has unilaterally decided that it's America's responsibility to fight the "global war on terror," almost completely on our own. Bush has no qualms criticizing other world leaders, or categorizing other nations as part of an "axis of evil."

So if Bush gets to shove his opinions and actions down the throats of the rest of the world, why do Americans get our panties in a wad when another world leader criticizes our president? I completely agree with Hugo Chavez (or did, at least until he started quoting Noam Chomsky), and he has every right to do what he did.

I was really, really disappointed in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), normally one of the fiercest critics of our Idiot-in-Chief, for leaping to his defense in a Joe Lieberman-style move. I still hope Pelosi is the Majority Leader in the next Congress, but I lost a great deal of respect for her when I read this quote:

"Hugo Chavez abused the privilege that he had speaking at the United Nations. In doing so, in the manner which he characterized the president, he demeaned himself and demeaned Venezuela."

Bullshit, Nancy. He said it like it is, and kudos to him for having the cojones to do so.

In fact, Chavez continued his war of words on the president, saying this at a stop in Harlem:

"He walks like this cowboy John Wayne. He doesn't have the slightest idea of politics. He got where he is because he is the son of his father. He was an alcoholic, an ex-alcoholic. He's a sick man, full of complexes, but very dangerous now because he has a lot of power."

In the United States, rich people are getting richer, and poor people are getting poorer, he said. "That's not a democracy; that's a tyranny."

Obviously, Chavez is showboating, criticizing the president because it will play well back home in Venezuela. Still, I can't disagree with what he's saying.

And, President Bush has asserted that the US, as the world's lone remaining superpower, has the power and the responsibility to be the world's "policeman." So if you're going to stick your nose in everyone else's business, you open yourself up to criticism.

Shame on the Democrats for being so spineless. What Pelosi, Rangel, and others should have said was something along the lines of "While I don't agree with the language President Chavez used in comparing President Bush to the 'devil,' I agree with his point that the Bush Administration has made the world a more dangerous place."

As time goes on, the differences between Democrats and Republicans get smaller and smaller. In the end, all politicians are spineless weasels.