By Andrew L. Jaffee

Jeff Cohen, presumably another self-loathing Jew, asked the question, “What’s Wrong With Calling Bush A Devil?,” in an article published on Reuters AlertNet. Cohen asks in a subtitle, “Conservatives were quick to lash out at Hugo Chavez for calling President Bush a “devil,” but that’s exactly what Rush Limbaugh was calling Democrats only a few years ago.” Cohen spouts the usual dogmatic, knee-jerk moral relativism — concentrated on Bush-hatred, and with no substance, yet claims his arguments to be substantial. Cohen believes in a vast right-wing conspiracy controlling our media, and is upset because some “conservatives” have criticized Hugo, calling them hypocrites. But Cohen is just as big of a hypocrite.

I’ll tell you what’s wrong with criticizing those who criticize calling Bush the devil. First of all, Hugo Chavez is a dictator whose “election” to power is far from being considered fair. Under Hugo, “press freedom has deteriorated markedly in Venezuela amid restrictive laws and harassment of journalists.” Chavez is the ultimate hypocrite, who fills his pockets with the profits from his country’s oil (Citgo), while claiming, “capitalism was a ‘destructive’ system and that ’socialism is the way forward’.” Hugo’s hero is Fidel Castro, who executes and imprisons dissidents, and whose populace is on the verge of starvation. Chavez is friendly with Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who has urged that Israel be “wiped off the map,” and denied that the Holocaust ever occurred. Ahmadinejad fervently believes in — has a “presidential obsession” with — mahdaviat, “the restorer of religion and justice who will rule before the end of the world.” Even Congressman Charles Rangel criticized Chavez’s calling Bush el diablo: “I want to express my extreme displeasure with statements by the President of Venezuela attacking U.S. President George Bush in such a personal and disparaging way during his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly.” Cohen sort of mildly hints that he may agree with criticism of Chavez.

Secondly, Cohen’s assumption that only “conservatives” are upset with Chavez is pure nonsense. I may be conservative on some issues, yet “liberal” (open-minded) on others. I can support a woman’s right to choose, and believe that gays deserve the same rights as all other people, without being a nutcase. That’s called being moderate or level-headed.

The likes of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter represent the worst of the Right. But these are just two examples. The Right is where I’ve been able to find free thinking nowadays, e.g., Victor David Hansen. The Left has devolved into a dogmatic cesspoll of anti-Semitism. The last remaining sane Democrat, Joe Lieberman (or “Jew” Lieberman as MoveOn.org calls him), was drummed out of the party.

So Cohen concludes that it is the Left that is mainstream and/or lucid:

Let me be clear: Those of us who use facts instead of rant; reason and argument instead of name-calling and personal attacks; evidence instead of intimidation and accusations of disloyalty — we have the moral authority to tell Hugo Chavez that his comments were out of line.

The Left accused Lieberman of being disloyal. Are Anti-Semitism and 70-year-old Stalinist dogma “reason and argument?”

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Related: United States, Dictator Watch, Political Correctness, Media/Blogsphere, Latin America

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