While making one of his patented Bush-bashing speeches at the U.N. today, Hugo Chavez, the brash, outspoken leader of Venezuela, waved a copy of a book by Noam Chomsky, demonstrating that he at least has good taste in literature.
This will, of course, excite a lot of the right-wing Chomsky-bashers into a frenzy of condemnation of the Cambridge-based linguist and U.S. foreign policy critic. But of course, Chomsky can’t control who reads his books (not that he would want to) nor does the character of the person reading the book detract from its truthfulness and sincerity.
But Chavez didn’t stop there in his provocations. I think he stepped over the line when he referred to President Bush as the Devil. This was an outrageous statement from a national leader and Chavez should apologize promptly. First off, it is clearly not true. Everybody knows that Dick Cheney is the Devil. Secondly, even if he was the Devil, we as U.S. citizens have the right to elect whomever the Supreme Court says we can. That’s what democracy is all about.
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