Hugo Chavez: Not So Bad, Maybe?

After U.S. Rep. William Delahunt negotiated a deal with the Venezuelan government last week to provide discounted heating oil to needy families in the Commonwealth, all hell seemed to break loose. We were reminded that Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, is a really bad guy, or, as the Globe delicately put it, citing unnamed critics, "a democratically elected leader who governs in an undemocratic manner." Today, the furor seems to have died down - even Governor Romney, while not mentioning Chavez directly, said the deal was a good thing. So what gives? The Bush administration had previously been pretty disciplined about staying on message in making Chavez out to be a dictator, and now of all times, the President could probably stand to distract the heartland from bad news abroad by beating up on Massachusetts Democrats. Then again, maybe all this talk of a democratically elected leader who doesn't respect democratic principles hits a little too close to home on the same day the federal government finally bothers to indict a U.S. citizen it's held without charges for over three years.

Photo: Say what you will about Hugo Chavez, the man has style.