Idiot of the Week? Cheney vs. Gingrich

The question: Who made the more stupid statement regarding the President's handshake with his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez? Both made fools of themselves complaining about the encounter. Their view is that the President of the United States should not sully himself by consenting to be touched by such a monster as Chavez, whom they pre-emptively deem a "dictator" and an enemy of the United States. He was an enemy of the previous President, and is perhaps an enemy of some American corporations, but these facts alone can't govern the present President's conduct toward a fellow head of government. What the Bush administration never could accept was that in the international community all nations are equal -- except in the UN Security Council, of course. The international community is ideally a democracy of nations, and no nation has a right to put on moral airs and snub another because its leader is often genuinely obnoxious and has a more expansive view of state power than many Americans. The sort of attitude that Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich would have Obama take is all the more childish when it remains unproven that Chavez is a dictator. He may be a bully and a blowhard, but the referendum repealing term limits did not make him president for life. In any event, he is the legitimate representative of Venezuela to the rest of the world, and the U.S. has no right to demand someone else. If there are issues between the two nations, it's foolish for either leader to act as if his company is a privilege that the other guy has to earn somehow.

But on to the competition. Our contestants' statements are included in this article. If these quotes accurately represent each man's views, then this is really an easy win for Gingrich. Cheney was not so asinine, at least, as to suggest that somehow Chavez was not the legitimate ruler of his country. His experience in the executive branch of government may have given Cheney a minimal measure of common sense that Gingrich has never acquired. This creature, who was dumb enough to quit Congress and the Speakership despite his party retaining a majority in the House simply because it lost some seats, supposedly still dreams of becoming President someday. Fortunately, even most Republicans find the idea laughable -- if only they felt the same way about the rest of their leaders.

Special bonus credit goes to Dana Perino, a former Bush mouthpiece, who actually called Chavez a dictator when the others only insinuated it. But there's not so much fun in crowning such a minor personage compared to the other two idiots.