Useful Idiots

I love these stories. Sean Penn is back from his little chat with Venezuelan thug dictator Hugo Chavez:

He met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week, the latest in a series of celebrities and public figures to visit Chavez, including Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte and Cindy Sheehan, who became a peace activist after her soldier son was killed in Iraq.

No doubt Penn wore his Che t-shirt.

During his trip to Venezuela, Penn said he was visiting “as a journalist and so I owe it to that medium to wait until I’ve digested, fact-checked and finished my journey here” before saying more. He thanked Chavez for the visit.

What is frightening is that he could easily be mistaken for a Reuters or AP reporter. He "owes it to that medium" to get his story straight. No pompus or over-inflated sense of self here; keep walking folks.

Penn & Co. are not first timers to the Madaline Albright School of Appeasement. They've traveled to Cuba to rub elbows with Castro, and Penn visited Iraq before the war on a "fact finding" mission. It's unfortunate that his interest wasn't developed in time to add Milosevic or Arafat to his wall of mass-murdering dictators.