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NEWS
Editorial Page
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Dial Joe-4-Chávez
Massachusetts
Democrats love Venezuela's strongman.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006 12:01 a.m.
The Wall Street Journal
Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez is an ally of the Iranian mullahs, a
supporter of North Korea, a close friend of Fidel Castro and a good
customer for Vladimir Putin's weapon factories. Now he's also a business
partner of Joseph P. Kennedy II.
The former Democratic Congressman describes the deal he's cooked up with
Mr. Chávez as charity for low-income consumers of heating oil. But it's
worth asking what the price of this largesse is to Venezuelans and to
U.S. security interests.
The arrangement is this: Mr. Chávez's Citgo--a Houston-based oil company
owned by the Venezuelan government--is supplying home heating oil to Mr.
Kennedy's Citizens Energy Corporation at a 40% discount. Citizens, a
nonprofit outfit, says it passes the savings onto the poor, aiming to
help 400,000 homes in 16 states that would otherwise have trouble
heating their homes. In the process, Mr. Kennedy happens to get a
high-profile publicity plug. If you think you qualify, says the
television ad that drew our attention to this partnership, just dial
1-877-Joe-4-Oil.
Generous Joe is not the only one polishing his public image here. In the
mold of the Castro strategy of sending armies of "doctors" and
"teachers" among the Latin American poor, Mr. Chávez is trying to shape
U.S. public opinion in the hope that more gringos will come to see the
Chávez government as benevolent.
Massachusetts Democrats seem especially eager to help. In a September
29, 2005, "confidential memorandum" addressed to "President Hugo Chávez"
and uncovered by a Congressional committee, William Delahunt (D., Mass.)
gushed that it was a "pleasure" to have met with the strongman "to
discuss your generous offer." The Democrat advised Mr. Chávez to steer
his oil through Mr. Kennedy's nonprofit and declared that "from a public
relations perspective" the discount oil scheme "is an extraordinary
opportunity to address urgent needs of people living in poverty, while
showcasing the compassion of your nation."
Compassion? If fighting poverty is the goal, Mr. Delahunt would do
better to remind Mr. Chávez that charity begins at home. The U.S. is far
richer than Venezuela and since Hurricane Hugo took power in 1999
Venezuelan living standards have suffered despite soaring oil prices.
Annual inflation averaged more than 20% between 2001 and 2005, imposing
a tax on the poorest. Meanwhile, an insecure investment climate has
taken a harsh toll on private-sector employment and shrunk the middle
class.
In his eight years in power, Mr. Kennedy's business partner has also
polarized Venezuela with his class warfare, rewritten the constitution,
politicized the judiciary, the electoral council and military, and
announced he plans to rule until 2021. Freedom House now ranks Venezuela
34th out of 35 countries in the Western Hemisphere in press freedom.
Only the Cuban press is more repressed.
Transparency International puts Venezuela second to last in the
Hemisphere in its 2006 "corruption perception index." And then there was
that revealing rant against President Bush ("the devil") at the United
Nations in September. Even Mr. Delahunt criticized his Venezuelan buddy
after that one.
But Mr. Kennedy keeps on trucking. Last week in a telephone interview
with the Washington Post, he defended his Chávez subsidy deal as
"morally righteous," arguing that the Citgo contribution to his
nonprofit is only "one-half of one percent" of Citgo oil and product
sales in the U.S.
We dialed Joe-4-Oil ourselves to ask directly whether it is also
"righteous" to assist an anti-American tyrant at the expense of the
Venezuelan people. In between berating our reporter for daring to ask
such a thing, Mr. Kennedy said that Mr. Chávez has done "so much more"
for the poor than any previous government. As for democracy, he said
there was "ample room for improvement in the ways that people get
elected in Venezuela as well as in Florida." Mr. Chávez chose his
partner well.
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