Chavez also said Bush may be seeking to kill him for calling him "the devil" at the U.N.

-- Via Adelphia.net

I hate to say this, because it may be taken the wrong way, but I think Hugo Chavez's apparently psychotic attacks on Bush constitute political astuteness of a higher level than is commonly believed.

Were I in Chavez's position I'd do the same thing, and I'll explain why. Chavez has many political enemies, and his regime is by no means secure. It is not unreasonable to expect that some sort of a coup may have been in the offing for a long time now, nor is it unreasonable to assume that it would be supported by the U.S. (I'll say right now that I'd support it.) What that means is that if you're Chavez, you have a vested interest in discrediting those who would mount a coup (as well as those who might support it) by linking the coup to Bush in advance of the coup.

Merely saying that Bush (or Pat Robertson) wants a coup is not enough. That's just preaching to the crowd. The extraordinarily vicious attacks in my view change this equation -- by providing Bush with a direct, compelling, "motivation" to launch a coup as a matter of "honor." This is not to say that Bush would be so gullible as to respond to such a dare, but what matters in any propaganda operation is the perception, not the reality.

Chavez has taken care of the perception factor. Any coup now will be a Bush coup. Every man in the street in Venezuela will "know" that it's Bush getting even.

For that matter, so would many Americans. The Anchoress touches on why:

There are some on the left who are suggesting that Hugo Chavez’s remarks are simply an indicator that the world “disrespects” President Bush…well…I wonder who gave them the idea that they could? Was it John Kerry calling him a “fucking liar,” and not having to answer for that rudeness to anyone while the press shrugged it off? Good heavens, Bush calls terrorism “evil” and he was mocked and criticized for using that word, but the press never had a problem with “fucking liar, fucking crooks and thieves” or with adolescent musings about the president’s name and female genitalia. It was alllllll soooooo funnnnneeeeeee, newsreaders could hardly deliver the spite without grinning, themselves.

While the left has now been forced to abandon its support for Chavez (previously led locally by Philadelphia politicians working with the Kennedy clan), at any hint of a coup, they could be counted on to scream that Bush was behind it, and was carrying out a personal vendetta.

Makes the coup a rather difficult political undertaking, I'd say.

Of course, I could be wrong about Chavez's political astuteness.

(He might just be taking rhetorical marching orders from Castro.)