Senator (Specter) Wants Improved Venezuela Relations

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - A Republican senator asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Friday to lower his rhetoric against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to help win Venezuela's support for combating illegal narcotics.

Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa. who met this week with Chavez, reminded Rumsfeld in a letter that the United States needs Venezuela's help for effective action against drug trafficking in South America.

"In this context," the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman wrote, "it may well be helpful to, at least, have a moratorium on adverse comments on Venezuela."

Pentagon officials said the letter had not been received by late Friday and refused immediate comment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050819/ap_on_go_co/us_venezuela_rumsfeld_rhetoric

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Now that would be prudent.

Since word out is that they're building their own military.

[Missy M]

2. Another way of saying....

we need their OIL!!!

[Rainscents]

3. Ding, ding, ding... we have got a winner!!!

[Rose Siding]

4. Specter was in Venezuela and Havana last weekend

snip>
Specter's spokesman, William H. Reynolds, confirms that Specter was in Havana on Sunday in hopes of meeting with the aging Cuban dictator -- although it was a bit uncertain whether he succeeded. The excursion to the Cuban capital was a side trip on a visit to the region that also took him to the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, where suspected terrorists are held. He returned to Havana on Monday night and yesterday was in Venezuela, home to another American nemesis, President Hugo Chavez.

Reynolds said Specter met two or three times in the past with Castro; the senator and the international pariah talked previously about drug interdiction.......
....
Reynolds at first said Specter "met with Castro." In a subsequent conversation, Reynolds hedged that, saying that there was "an attempt to try to get them together" Monday but that he could not confirm whether a meeting had actually occurred.

Travel to Cuba is restricted for ordinary Americans, but Specter is no ordinary American. Specter, Reynolds said, informed both the State Department and the Pentagon about his itinerary.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1709131&mesg_id=1709131

[Mika]

14. Castro an international pariah? Actually, that title belongs to Bush.

Mr Castro is greeted by throngs of cheering crowds wherever he goes, doesn't wear a kevlar vest.

Mr Bush, in kevlar down to his diapers, has to have security details shut down entire towns wherever he goes with swarms of armed SS with orders to shoot to kill because he is so hated.

[Cha]

5. Specter has

brass cajones!

Can you imagine rummy's smugass arrogant reaction?

[rodeodance]

6. shut up Rummy--would love to hear that (and to Condi also).

[rodeodance]

7. the article in the NYTimes today depicts Rummy as going around

SA and Latin America laying it on Cuba and Ven as the bad guys.

[MisterP]

8. shouldn't our Dems be on this? instead we're being regaled with lectures

as to how bad we are at national defense and how we need to add a dozen thousand troops and expand the mil

[Cha]

9. My first thought, too...

Where are the dems on this..joining in with the slamming of Venezuela?

[leesa]

17. The right wing ones have definitely been on the overthrow Chavez wagon.

The usual suspects...

[goforit]

10. Now this is a revelation. Way to go Specter!!!

[go west young man]

11. Chavez has called Bush out since day one. I wish our

Democratic leaders had his guts and determination.

[PurityOfEssence]

12. Only children and old folks seem to tell the truth

As he dies, perhaps Specter will finally come clean about the single bullet theory.

He's one of the toughest of the old guard: despicable, yet with a sense of decency. Still, he's been a party to so much ugliness that he must writhe in his sleep. I'd only say this if I thought he had a conscience, and I think he does. His contrariness to the Bushies isn't just jockeying for position as life ebbs away, it's actually based upon something. Will he ever come clean? Not appreciably; look at the set of his jaw and you know his need to control.

The only thing that saved us during Watergate was the Republican Party accepting reality and taking out the trash; thinking that this is all that keeps calamity at bay now is terrifying, but to think otherwise is silly.

Not fun.

[Toots]

15. I truly hope he has written his Memoirs

I also would like to know the truth about that bullet.

[anarchy1999]

13. Wait a minute. Is it really about the "war on drugs" or might it be the

threat of Chavez getting just really fed up and turning off the spigot?

I believe the latter of the two, but we must save face, now must we not?

Go Chavez!

Drug trafficking, my sweet ass, or is it my sweet crude?

[leesa]

16. Have his drug profits gone down?

Spector knows Venezuela is kicking our butt and forming strong oil relationships with China and Iran. Wasn't he out there trashing Chavez not too long ago?

[0007]

18. junior to Kim Jong Il, "where do you get those groovy high

elevated shoes? Do ya think they could make me a pair of elevated cowboy boots? And also who does your hair and makes your uniforms?"

I have to speak to Rummy and I want him to get the message to be a little tougher in the South American counties.

[struggle4progress]

19. US Senator Asks Rumsfeld to Stop Criticism of Chavez (Specter R - PA)

By VOA News
20 August 2005

A prominent U.S. Republican senator has asked the defense secretary to tone down his criticism of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, suggesting it could hurt drug fighting efforts in the region.

The request was made in a letter Friday from Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania to Secretary Rumsfeld, and follows the senator's meeting Wednesday with Mr. Chavez in Caracas. <snip>

http://www.voanews.com/english/us-venezuela-sat-20aug05.cfm

[brucefan]

20. Sometimes

Arlen does things that impress me lately

[madeline_con]

21. "Shut up, Rummy!"

You old curmudgeon pain in the ass, will you please go home?

[struggle4progress]

22. Oops. Duplicate:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1713876

[Spinzonner]

23. Maybe if Rumsfeld had and would spend his time running the Pentagon

and managing the military instead of trying to setup and run his own State Department and National Security Agency the troops would have what they needed and the planning wouldn't be so abysmal.