WSJ Tells Rep. Delahunt to Apologize
by Aaron Margolis, April 12th, 2006 at 04:20pm
Cape Cod Today’s blog, Cape Politics writes about the Wall Street Journal editorial yesterday that accuses Congressman William Delahunt (10th District-Democrat) of being a “Venezuelan subsidiary in the US Congress” and demands that he apologize to William Brownfield, U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela.
Mr. Delahunt is the Massachusetts Democrat who last year arranged a deal to buy 12 million gallons of discounted home heating oil from Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, supposedly to help the Bay State’s poor. Mr. Brownfield, a career diplomat, is the U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela. Last week his motorcade was attacked by a pro-Chavez mob after the ambassador had visited a poor Caracas neighborhood to donate baseball equipment. Mr. Chavez responded by accusing Mr. Brownfield of provoking the incident: “If you continue provoking us,” the dictator warned, “go pack your bags because I’m going to throw you out of here.”
Readers of these columns may recall that when Mr. Delahunt struck his oil deal with Mr. Chavez, we warned that the Congressman’s free-lance diplomacy “undermines any official U.S. pressure on Mr. Chavez to behave more humanely.” Mr. Delahunt’s chief of staff responded huffily that the deal was just “an attempt to reduce tensions between the two countries,” according to USA Today.
Mr. Delahunt is not the only Venezuelan subsidiary in Congress. Fellow Bay State Democrat Ed Markey belongs on the list, as do New York Congressman Jose Serrano and Rhode Island Senators Jack Reed and Lincoln Chafee, all of whom have sought or obtained preferential oil deals with Mr. Chavez. They now owe a political debt to a man who once described Saddam Hussein as his “brother.”
We recognize that by arranging sweetheart capers with Mr. Chavez, Mr. Delahunt & Co. are seeking to score points with voters while sticking it to the Bush Administration. Now might be a good time for them to reconsider what their cheap politicking means for the honor and safety of our diplomats in the field.
Entry Filed under: Capitol Hill
1 Comment
1. Salvatore Coglione | April 13th, 2006 at 12:38 am
More WSJ Editorial Board Wingnuttery
from Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, supposedly to help the Bay State’s poor.
“Strongman?” Chavez was democratically-elected president twice, including his overwhelming victory in the internationally-supervised mid-term referendum.
Chavez has more credibility as a democratically-elected representative of his people than Mubarak of Egypt, Musharraf of Pakistan, or the Saudi Dictorship who Bush is always sucking-up to (and where women can’t even vote).
Still, the WSJ wingnuts call the pro-Bush Saudi Dictators ROYALS, not “strongmen.”
They now owe a political debt to a man who once described Saddam Hussein as his “brother.”
OOOh! that’s beyond the pale –especially after Donald Dumbsfeld traveled to Iraq and shook Saddam’s hand after he’d gassed Iranians during the Iran-Iraq war, and since Dubya can’t get enough photo-ops on his ranch holding hands with those same Saudi Dictators whose pals financed al Qaeda.
Somebody break out the tinfoil hats for the WSJ wackos…