I'm here at the Heritage foundation for our weekly bloggers forum with Robert Bluey. Numerous bloggers are present including congressman Connie Mack from Florida who recently endorsed Mitt Romney.

Today we're talking about the impact of Hugo Chavez in the Americas. There's a great and informative website with a DVD: Crisis in the Americas.

Congressman Mack considers our current policy a failure. Chavez is "systematically trying to change" Venezuela to continue to intimidate his countrymen.

"Unless the administration gets serious about putting Chavez in a confined box we are heading for some rough times in Latin America."

"There is a clear difference in the Congress between those that think he is a threat and those that want to shield him from the bad things he is doing."

"The relationship that he has with Castro and the destruction of Democracy is a serious threat"

"If Hugo Chavez continues his relations with President Abedinejad and Chavez beings to allow Abedinejad to get a bigger footprint on our hemisphere we could see the same situation with Fidel, Cuba an Russia."

"I'm not looking for the administration or anyone else to call his worse names... we need a forceful discussion about this... whether its an embargo or something else. One of the things we haven't done very well is to tell the people of Venezuela that we support them."

On his endorsement of Mitt Romney:

Labels: connie mack, hugo chavez

MMM reader Neal points out two stories about Mitt's opponents.

1) Guliani and Chavez. From CNN.com:

At first glance, former New York Mayor and 2008 presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani wouldn't seem to have much in common with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

One is considered one of the heroes in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a leader who walked to ground zero while the World Trade Center towers smoldered. The other is a vehement anti-American who has called President Bush a "madman" and "the devil" and flaunts his association with longtime U.S. adversary Fidel Castro of Cuba.

But there is a link between the two, according to the Texas Ethics Commission. Giuliani's law firm, Bracewell and Giuliani, is making money by lobbying American lawmakers on behalf of Citgo Petroleum Corp. of Houston. Citgo is the American subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela -- the state-owned Venezuelan oil company.

2) FoxNews reports from Susan Estrich:

While Giuliani is riding high in the polls, and attracting the critics, John McCain is in the even less enviable position of sagging in the polls, and being asked to explain it. McCain has the Swift Boaters, literally some of the same ones, coming after him too, but on that front at least, he’s fortified by his standing as a former POW, which is pretty firm cement for the hero label.

Labels: hugo chavez, John McCain, Polls, rudy