This time (I can’t remember the last time). Venezuela’s Chavez, the House Minority Leader said, is a thug:

Hugo Chavez fancies himself a modern day Simon Bolivar but all he is an everyday thug . . . Hugo Chavez abused the privilege that he had, speaking at the United Nations. He demeaned himself and he demeaned Venezuela.

Maybe—just maybe—the rhetorical flourishes of Chavez and Ahmadinejad this week will serve as a first wake-up call to the Democrats that the threat from outside our borders is greater than the threat from inside our borders. I’d like to think so.

UPDATE.  Even Rep. Charles Rangel has leaped to Bush’s defense:

I just want to make it abundantly clear to Hugo Chavez or any other president – don’t come to the United States and think because we have problems with our president that any foreigner can come to our country and not think that Americans do not feel offended when you offend our Chief of State. Any demeaning public attack against him is viewed by Republicans and Democrats, and all Americans, as an attack on all of us.