[lbo-talk] "how French!," froths the Journal

[Doug Henwood]

Wall Street Journal - November 30, 2005

REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Oil for Friends

Hugo Chávez repays his Congressional amigo.

Money can't buy love, unless you're Anna Nicole 
Smith. But these days a little heating oil can 
buy friends in Washington, especially when they 
come as cheap as Democrat William Delahunt. 
Massachusetts wants bargain oil prices to help it 
through the winter. Venezuelan tyrant Hugo Chávez 
wants influence in Washington. Leave it to the 
Congressman from the Commonwealth and a Kennedy 
to close the deal.

Last week Venezuela announced that its U.S.-based 
Citgo Petroleum would sell 12 million gallons of 
home heating oil at a 40% discount to help the 
poor in Massachusetts. The deal was announced by 
Mr. Delahunt on the lawn of a beneficiary before 
Thanksgiving, with Congressman Ed Markey at his 
side. "This today is about people, it's not about 
politics," Mr. Delahunt said with a straight 
face. Massachusetts-based Citizens Energy, run by 
the Kennedy clan, will be one of the distributors.

"To Citgo, to the people of Venezuela, our debt," 
the Congressman pledged. Mr. Delahunt should 
rightly feel a debt to the people of Venezuela, 
whose per-capita income is perhaps one-tenth that 
of Massachusetts and whose sole source of hard 
currency is the oil that their leader is now 
giving away to the second-richest state in the 
union. But Mr. Delahunt has no unpaid debt to Mr. 
Chávez. For some years now the Congressman has 
been lobbying hard for the Venezuelan despot, 
whom he paints as a misunderstood humanitarian. 
How French.

Mr. Chávez came to power in 1999. In seven years 
he has a domestic record of human rights abuses, 
election fraud, property confiscations a la 
Zimbabwe's Mugabe, erosion of the independent 
judiciary, limits on press freedom and 
militarization. His best friends include Fidel 
Castro, the Iranian mullahs and Colombia's FARC 
terrorists.

The Bush Administration is worried about all 
this, but Mr. Delahunt has no qualms. After Mr. 
Chávez was briefly deposed in 2002 because of his 
use of violence against dissent, Mr. Delahunt 
visited Venezuela and proclaimed, "I think he's 
learned from this. I think he understands that 
healing and reconciliation are the true qualities 
of leadership, not division." Mr. Chávez's 
attacks on his critics have since worsened.

Mr. Delahunt returned to Caracas to dine with Mr. 
Chávez in August and was asked whether he might 
be acting in opposition to U.S. policy. "I don't 
work for Condoleezza Rice. I don't report to the 
State Department. I report to the people who 
elected me in the state of Massachusetts. I 
belong to an independent branch of government."
Which would be more accurate if it were possible 
for Massachusetts to have a separate foreign 
policy. Mr. Delahunt's lobbying for the dictator 
undermines any official U.S. pressure on Mr. 
Chávez to behave more humanely, which is 
precisely why Mr. Chávez is returning the favor 
by plying Mr. Delahunt with cheap oil.

For less pliable Americans, el jefe del Caracas 
has a different policy. On Monday, a U.S. 
Congressional delegation led by House 
International Relations Chairman Henry Hyde and 
ranking Democrat Tom Lantos was barred from 
entering the country and held aboard their 
aircraft for two hours. The delegation's 
itinerary had been known to Venezuelan officials 
for weeks. For a little more discount oil, 
perhaps Mr. Delahunt will explain to his 
colleagues how this was all just one big 
misunderstanding.