Friday, September 29, 2006
Speaking of the disturbing specter of a rising anti-semitism under Hugo Chavez, Ed Lasky at The American Thinker: Democrats and the anti-Semitism of Hugo Chavez
In 2002, 16 Democratic Congressmen, including senior Judiciary Committee member John Conyers of Michigan, voiced their support for Chavez when they sent a letter to President Bush complaining that America was not protecting Chavez from internal opposition to his authoritarian and increasingly erratic rule.
In that same year, Representative William Delahunt of Massachusetts established a “Venezuelan Caucus” to show “friendship to President Chavez”.
More recently, Congressman Edward Markey (also of Massachusetts) joined with Delahunt to accept cheap heating oil for their constituents from Chavez under a program Chavez rolled out to curry favor with certain Congressmen in America. The program, awkwardly called “From the Venezuelan Hearts to the US hearths”, has several political aims. It is geared towards minority communities in America as a way to garner support for Chavez among these groups. By doling out oil at a 40% discount in liberal congressional districts and allowing the incumbent representatives to take credit for it, Chavez is hoping to influence the makeup and policies of Congress and place these Congressmen in his debt.
This same discount oil has lured a Kennedy, ex-Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy III (also of Massachusetts), to hook up with Hugo. Chavez supplies discount oil for Kennedy to run through his Citizens Energy Corporation. Jose Serrano (D-NY) is also a Representative who will benefit as his constituents receive this discount oil. While Chavez’s most recent rantings and ravings at the United Nations brought forth some expressions of disapproval from some Democrats (Congresswoman Pelosi and Congressman Rangel), others like Delahunt downplayed it, and Iowa’s Senator Harkin actually supported Chavez.
The discount oil program appears to be an end-run around the federal law prohibiting foreigners from financially contributing to political candidates. Chavez is clearly accepting these losses (in effect donating the “lost profits” to these districts) in order to help elect Congressmen who will support him.* It is reminiscent of the big city political machines which used to hand out turkeys to voters at Christmas...
"Ex-president Carter helped him secure his position by certifying election results ..."
Khaled Abu Toameh, in the late 90s, when Arafat was re-elected, had an article in the Jpost in which he described how he witnessed the stealing of a ballot box and its replacement when the lights in the polling station all went out and how Mr. Carter later stated his contentment with the legality of the election.
I think that nowadays anything that Carter has connections to should be viewed in a critical light.
What's going on in Venezuela is terrifying. That people in the US do not see what is going on there and elsewhere is more terrifying. The there are people working to accomplish similar official anti-Semitism in the US is more terrifying still.
But are we supposed to be surprised to learn that Conyers and Carter, with their past anti-Semitic antics, have supported Chavez? Not I.
And now the rebuttal on behalf of Jewish Democrats:
Blah blah blah Pat Buchanon (getting louder) blah blah blah George H. W. Bush blah blah blah (louder still) BUSH TIES TO SAUDI FAMILY blah blah blah George W. Bush blah blah LOSS OF THE WORLD'S SYMPATHY AFTER 9-11 blah blah Christian Right blah blah blah.
[Based on actual and angry response during 2004 campaign when I asked a Kerry coordinator whether Sen. Kerry was going to condemn anti-Semitic comments that had been made by certain named Democratic office holders.]
Has anyone but me noticed how quiet the press has suddenly become on the subject of Delahunt's support for Chavez? It's my theory that the press doesn't want to take the chance that too much publicity about the Delahunt-Chavez friendship will harm Delahunt's next election. It's a very weird story how Delahunt came to be the rep for this district, which includes the Cape. He was running against a brilliant Republican, Ed Teague, who might have changed the course of history had he been sitting where he was supposed to be in Congress when the impeachment of Clinton arose. Instead we got another Democrat party-follower in Delahunt who rose to Clinton's defense. If Ed had been elected, he would have been a strong and intelligent voice in Congress. Two of his children went to West Point, to give you some idea of how intellligent the entire family is. Ed was the whip of the Massachusetts House for many years as the minority leader. The Cape Cod Times went after him with a vengeance when Ed decided to run for the U.S. Congress. It was a despicable persecution on the part of the Cape Cod Times, run the final week before the election when there was no time for Ed to refute it, and even Delahunt was surprised that he won! The Cape carried him because the Cape Cod Times dragged Ed through the mud the week before the election. There is a new guy from Harwich running against Delahunt, and I think he might win. The challenger is big on defense. Perhaps I'm daydreaming, but there's a chance the guy from Harwich might succeed, if the Republican's get behind him. Cape Cod used to be a Republican stronghold in Massachusetts, but it isn't anymore. This area has become all Democratic in the last five years. At any rate, the local press is keeping mum on the subject of Delahunt's friendship. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming elections. As I write that, I'm being ridiculously optimistic. People in Massachusetts simply hate Bush and all Republicans.