The essential truth of the story in today's New York Times is moderately interesting: Turns out Rudy Giuliani's law firm has lobbied the Texas government on behalf of an oil company controlled by Hugo Chavez. Giuliani had no comment--for once--and officials at the Lone Star branch of Citgo, the company in question, predictably claim they are blissfully ignorant of the whole situation.
None of these facts are as interesting as reporter Russ Buettner's characterization of Chavez's relationship with our president: In recent years, he has called Mr. Bush "a donkey," "a drunkard" and "a coward," blamed him for a failed coup attempt in Venezuela in 2002 and allied himself with Fidel Castro.
Can you spot the weasel words? Buettner (or whoever edited this piece) implies that Chavez's ire towards Bush regarding the coup is somehow deluded--he "blames" him.
The actual facts surrounding the coup will probably never be known, much as we'll never really know who gave the order to fire those U.S. attorneys. In other words, the administration may not have been directly responsible for it, but they damn well knew what was going on, and by making no attempt to stop it, they let it happen. Once it did, the Bushinistas referred to it not as a coup, but a "change in government," and were all too willing to fawn over Pedro Carmona, the noxious right-winger briefly installed in place of Chavez, and did everything they could to keep Chavez from returning to power.
Chavez doesn't "blame" Bush for the coup; he states facts, reported back in 2002 by repectable newsgathering organizations around the world. Including, way back when, The New York Times.
