Quotes Of The Day: Rangel And Pelosi Vs. Chavez

“An attack on Bush is an attack on all Americans…’You do not come into my country, my congressional district, and you do not condemn my president. If there is any criticism of President Bush, it should be restricted to Americans, whether they voted for him or not. I just want to make it abundantly clear to Hugo Chavez or any other president, do not come to the United States and think because we have problems with our president that any foreigner can come to our country and not think that Americans do not feel offended when you offend our Chief of State’…” — Charles Rangel

“Hugo Chavez fancies himself a modern day Simon Bolivar but all he is an everyday thug. Hugo Chavez abused the privilege that he had, speaking at the United Nations. He demeaned himself and he demeaned Venezuela.” — Nancy Pelosi

Two things.

First of all, here’s a little applause for Rangel and Pelosi. No…really. It’s great to see them doing the right thing. Now, would they have said what they said if an election wasn’t right around the corner? That’s highly doubtful. But, whether it’s in the run-up to an election or not, if you do a good thing, you deserve some credit for it.

Number Two, let me say a word about the author that Hugo Chavez was pimping at the United Nations, Noam Chomsky. Chomsky is the king of the America haters and you can boil just about everything he has ever written down to, “America is responsible for almost every bad thing that happens in the world.”

Which brings up an important point: many of the people around the world who hate Americans and Bush have learned their hatred from members of the American left — like Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan, Ted Rall, Ted Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Howard Dean.

Does that mean that lefties shouldn’t criticize Bush or America? Absolutely not. But, they should really think about what the ramifications of some of their more outrageous hyperbole may be. Bush is Hitler, it’s a war for oil, we’re occupiers, Bush supports torture, Republicans want to turn America into a theocracy, the Bush Administration is behind 9/11, etc., etc., etc.

Most Americans, even a lot of the liberals who are saying those things know that it’s all rabid rhetoric with no basis of reality. But, do the people in Venezuela? Iran? Iraq? Cuba? People complain that Bush has undercut our popularity in the world. However, there is nothing Bush has done or will ever do that could be half as damaging to our reputation as the rest of the world simply taking at face value what liberals say on a day in and day out basis about Bush and America.

So again, it’s great that Pelosi and Rangel ripped Chavez for what he said. But, more responsible liberals should be willing to stand up and confront other liberals who go over the line, in order to cut this sort of rhetoric off at its real source.

Also see,

The Mythology Of Chomsky

Update #1: Someone must have forgotten to send Democratic Senator Tom Harkin a memo:

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a democrat, today defended Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s United Nations speech in which Chavez called President George Bush the devil. Harkin said the comments were “incendiary”, then went on to say, “Let me put it this way, I can understand the frustration, ah, and the anger of certain people around the world because of George Bush’s policies.” Harkin continued what has been frequent criticism of the president’s foreign policy.”

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