[Marxism] Barney Frank on Hugo Chavez

[Walter Lippmann]

(Barney Frank, an openly gay member of the U.S. Congress from the
state of Massachusetts, gave the following remarks last month and
I'm grateful to Karen Lee Wald for sharing this pitful document.)
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CHÁVEZ: OUTRAGEOUS AND OUTLANDISH 
(House of Representatives - 
Congressional Record - 
September 25, 2006)

U.S. House of Representatives
September 25, 2006

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts.: Mr. Speaker, the Boston Globe Editorial
on Friday, September 22, accurately describes the antics of
Venezuelan President Chávez at the U.N. He was simultaneously
outrageous and outlandish, using the great forum of the U.N. General
Assembly for a semi-coherent diatribe. He gave a clear example of why
his support in elections in Latin America has been toxic to those
who've received it. Recently, in Peru and in Mexico, being tied to
Chávez by their opponents, accurately or not, was very damaging to
presidential candidates.

I hope Americans will also make it clear to Chávez that his crudity
and disrespect for democracy will find little support here. 


DEVIL IN DISGUISE

The Bush Administration deserves to be criticized for many of its
foreign policies, but Hugo Chávez is not the one to do it. By his
intemperate and foolish remarks at the United Nations Wednesday and
his continuing support for authoritarian regimes, the Venezuelan
president has forfeited his claim to leadership in world affairs.

``The devil came here yesterday,'' Chávez said in reference to
President Bush's speech of the day before. Chávez made the sign of
the cross and engaged in other theatrics to provoke his audience of
the U.N . General Assembly. George Bush was reelected with 50.7
percent of the vote in 2004 after a vigorously fought, unfettered
campaign, and he will leave office without a fuss in 2009 after eight
years. Bush can be called many things but not the ultimate embodiment
of evil.

Chávez has been brandishing anti-Americanism ever since he became
president in 1998. He intensified his denunciation of the Bush
administration after a failed coup in 2002, which he believed
Washington had fomented. Venezuela, with its vast oil reserves, has
benefited greatly from the surge in oil prices since 2001. Chávez is
criticizing the leading force behind a world economic system that has
enriched his country and enhanced his power.

Were Chávez really concerned with the oppressed of the world, he
would not consort with Kim Jong Il and Bashir Assad, who have
continued their fathers' repressive regimes in North Korea and Syria.
Nor would he have created an informal alliance with antidemocratic
Iran, or extended a lifeline to Fidel Castro in Cuba, or visited Iraq
in 2000 to support Saddam Hussein. If the United States opposes a
dictator, Chávez backs him.

This monotone foreign policy, combined with his outburst this week,
undercuts Venezuela's campaign for the Latin American seat on the
U.N. Security Council, which will be decided by a two-thirds majority
of the General Assembly on Oct. 16. The Security Council has
important votes coming up in the next year, on sanctions against Iran
and action to stop genocide in Darfur, among others. Venezuela, under
the leadership of Chávez, would not make a positive contribution.

Deprived of an international forum, Chávez would have more time to
spend on his reelection campaign. It ought to be as freely contested
as the 2004 race between Bush and John F. Kerry. And if Chávez wins
on Dec. 3, he ought to devote his six-year term to solving the great
recurring problem of Venezuela: How a country endowed with such
natural wealth can leave almost half its people in utter poverty.
Chávez would earn more enduring fame by leading Venezuela out of this
resource trap.