Chavez and the Dems' Delayed Reaction

It took a while.

Yesterday morning, Hugo Chavez proved what a sorry excuse he is as a world leader, mercilessly bashing President Bush on U.S. soil.

More importantly, the elected Dems and their supporters proved what sort of Americans they are.

I'm not saying that Dems shouldn't disagree with the President. I'm not saying that they shouldn't express their opposition.

What I'm saying is that responsible, civilized Dem officials should have immediately condemned Chavez for his horrible remarks about President Bush in his address to the UN General Assembly.

So far, only two, Charlie Rangel and Nancy Pelosi, have publicly stated their disagreement with Chavez. Worse, it took a day for them to do it.

Apparently, Tom Harkin didn't get the Dem memo. Harkin gave his stamp of approval to the Chavez rant.

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a democrat, today defended Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's United Nations speech in which Chavez called President George Bush the devil. Harkin said the comments were "incendiary", then went on to say, "Let me put it this way, I can understand the frustration, ah, and the anger of certain people around the world because of George Bush's policies." Harkin continued what has been frequent criticism of the president's foreign policy.

Harkin says Bush came to office saying he wanted a new humility in foreign policy in reaching out to other countries, but Harkin says Bush's actual policy has been heavy handed. Harkin says the anger against Bush is generated from the Iraq war, which Harkin says was "unnecessary."

Harkin says, "We tend to forget that a few days after 9-1-1 thousands, thousands of Iranians marched in a candlelight procession in Teheran in support of the United States. Every Muslim country was basically on our side. Just think, in five years, President Bush has squandered all that." Harkin says the U.S. has put billions of dollars into the Iraq war, when it could be helping poor countries with things like clean water, medical aid and education.

I suspect that reaction was delayed due to the fact that the Dems were positively giddy over the thrashing that Chavez gave Bush.

It took a while for them to come their senses and realize that a foreign leader coming to New York City and calling the President of the United States a devil is not cool.

Once they realized that their silence on the matter would likely make them appear even more anti-American and utterly out of touch than they already do, Rangel and Pelosi made some comments.

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE!

It's obviously a calculated, political move.

Moreover, it's a bit odd for them to criticize Chavez for saying the very things that they say regularly.

This "circle the wagons" around the American president routine is forced. It's fake.

The Dem vultures are only backing off because they see it as politically necessary.

They hate President Bush as much as Chavez does.

Cut the crap.