Chavez's sneaky oil stunt

As promised, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made good on an earlier promise to sell heating oil on the cheap to poor people in the United States. As you may recall, he made the statements during the Katrina episode, as gas and oil prices began spiking. Chavez seems to be adroit at using his oil as a geo-political weapon, similar to other thugs around the world. Getting this concept into the head of a leftist has always been a tough task, though.

Although Hugo has a frosty relationship with the current administration, he appears to have previous connections with the Massachusetts "super-liberal" who helped organize the price-cut. The story fingers Congressman William Delahunt as arranging the deal in a "lengthy" meeting with Chavez earlier this year. Joe Kennedy's name was also dropped, as he's in charge of the non-profit energy company distributing the fuel oil. I'm attributing no wrong-doing to either Delahunt or Kennedy, just the usual partisan point-scoring. The only twist is that this point-scoring comes with the help of a foreign government leader, one considered not so friendly by the State Department. Don't forget Chavez' recent disruption of Bush's trip to peddle the Free Trade Area in Argentina, which turned into a mess, thanks in part to Chavez.

Although it's obvious what Chavez is trying to do, I have some logistical questions. Will there be a means-test to determine who is "poor" enough to qualify for the discounted oil? If so, is it fair for one family to miss getting the cheaper oil because they made 1 dollar too much last year? If there isn't a means test, is it fair for rich families in the designated areas to get a discount while poor people a county away get nothing? Liberals are never good at defining cutoff points.

Perhaps the overall strategy is SOS--just another attempt to make Bush look bad. But somehow I keep hearing the old saying, "beware of Greeks bearing gifts". I've placed my Citgo credit card on death row.