Granted, hundreds of thousands of US citizens are now pawns in a geopolitical competition between the US and Venezuela, as the latter's president does all he can to castigate and embarrass the Bush Administration.
It’s too easy to berate Joe Kennedy – mainly for his name than his actions – than to DO SOMETHING. If the US provided ways and means for the less fortunate among US to afford heating oil to stay warm this winter, Americans wouldn’t need to call 1-877-Joe-4-OIL.
“I’m Joe Kennedy. Help is on the way,” he assures in his ubiquitous television commercials. What galls people who themselves are benefiting from fuel from questionable places – including Venezuela, which sends oil to Kennedy’s nonprofit Citizens Energy Corporation at a discount -- is that Kennedy gives credit to “our friends in Venezuela.” That country’s president, Hugo Chavez, is clearly no friend of President Bush, whom he has denounced at the United Nations as an incarnation of “the devil.”
Having unsuccessfully sought commitments from the major US oil companies and from oil-rich countries in the Middle East, this is what Kennedy has said about going with Venezuela and Citgo, which is a Venezuelan-owned company:
"Every single company said no. Every single one except one, and that was Citgo. So it is important that when a major company reaches out and does something like this, that we should acknowledge and celebrate the kind of action they are taking.
"Exxon made $10 billion in a quarter - in three months out of the year they made $10 billion. And they say, when it comes to helping the poor, 'Sorry, there is no money in the till'."
A Florida congressman whose tush is well-warmed has taken Kennedy to task, practically accusing him of being unpatriotic. To work with Chavez is to deal with a real devil, but if 400,000 American households are warm this winter…….???
As Kennedy says at the end of his ads: “No one should be left out in the cold.” Clearly the US government and its good friends don't give a heck while ignoring the fact that so much of corporate America – from Vice President Cheney’s good friends at Haliburton to airlines – is racking up billions in profits by doing business with Venezuela.
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I'm not familiar with this story, but, it reminds me of some interesting philosophical debates I've had about politicians and people, in general: If a bad person does a good thing, does that make it bad?
Or if a good person does a good thing for bad reasons, does that make it bad?
The answer that bubbles up to the top, most often, seems to be that, when people are being fed, protected, sheltered, and saved, motivations don't matter as much as the deeds, themselves.
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