When your friends laugh at your enemy's jokes, they are no longer your friends

I finally got around to listening to Hugo Chavez's speech to the U.N. General Assembly today on my iPod. I heard him say:

I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is in their own house. The devil is right at home. The devil -- the devil, himself, is right in the house.

And the devil came here yesterday. (crossing himself)

Yesterday, the devil came here. Right here. Right here. And it smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of.

Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.

And the U.N. General Assembly laughed and applauded!

Chavez concluded with:

You know that my personal doctor had to stay in the plane. The chief of security had to be left in a locked plane. Neither of these gentlemen was allowed to arrive and attend the U.N. meeting. This is another abuse and another abuse of power on the part of the Devil. It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all.

May God bless us all. Good day to you.

And the U.N. General Assembly applauded - sustained applause for 40 solid seconds.

Of course, the US press commented on Chavez's rudeness, but they missed the crudeness of the insult, or chose to ignore it. It's pretty plain that Chavez had seen this little tidbit in US News and World Report:

Animal House in the West Wing

He loves to cuss, gets a jolly when a mountain biker wipes out trying to keep up with him, and now we're learning that the first frat boy loves flatulence jokes. A top insider let that slip when explaining why President Bush is paranoid around women, always worried about his behavior. But he's still a funny, earthy guy who, for example, can't get enough of fart jokes. He's also known to cut a few for laughs, especially when greeting new young aides, but forget about getting people to gas about that.

The UN delegates obviously got the joke, and we missed it entirely.

So contemplate this.

President Clinton was the butt of plenty of jokes over the Lewinsky affair, but nobody dissed him in the UN.

Does it say something about how we are viewed; that five years after 9/11 gave us the overwhelming support and sympathy of the world, our enemy comes to our country, stands on our soil, and makes our President the subject of a fart joke?

And what does it say that the joke is warmly received by those who were so firmly in our corner five years ago?

And finally, what does it say that we are too clueless to get the goddamned joke?

Colin Powell was wrong. The world is well past doubting the "moral basis for our fight against terrorism".