US Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee sticks up for Hugo Chavez

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) wants Venezuela to be able to buy spare F-16 parts from the United States. What? Did she forget Chavez's speech at the United Nations? Story from AP.

CARACAS, Venezuela - A U.S. congresswoman called on the Bush administration Wednesday to reconsider its ban on selling parts for U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to Venezuela, urging improved ties between the two nations.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, told reporters that she was making the first U.S. congressional visit to Venezuela since President Hugo Chavez's December re-election with the message: "I want an immediate repairing of the relations between the United States and Venezuela."

Jackson Lee described Venezuela as a friendly nation that the U.S. should cooperate with and said that the F-16 jets, which are built in Texas, was an issue of concern to her constituents in Houston.

Pledging to "personally go back and raise" the issue, she called for the U.S. Congress "to reconsider sanctions on the F-16s."

The U.S. State Department has banned arms sales to Venezuela, including parts necessary to maintain its fleet of F-16s, citing a lack of support by Chavez's government for counterterrorism efforts and its close relations with Iran and Cuba.

[...]

She said her fact-finding mission to Venezuela was part of an effort by a new Democrat-controlled Congress to show that "Venezuela has many friends in this new Congress."

"We're here to re-establish friendship," she said.

Not to burst your bubble or anything... but Representative, are you insane? Why, after all of Hugo Chavez's anti-American shenanigans, should we give them a break? Especially in regards to military technology. Oh, I almost forgot... Chavez rules by decree. No government that has a ruler by decree deserves American support of any kind.

Jackson Lee has been a long time critic of the president and the Republicans for their tactics over the last few years, yet she advocates for a much more controlling government in Venezuela. Double standards don't reflect well, Congresswoman.

(Hat tip: Hot Air)