I suspect that not many Americans are aware of the upcoming election.

Sure, everyone knows that Tuesday’s the day we have a chance to throw out a bunch of politically, financially, and morally corrupt Republicans. You can’t escape that. Every news outlet from CNN to HBO is talking about broken government and rigged voting machines.

But in Nicaragua, which Ronald Reagan famously characterized as only two days from Brownsville, Texas, Reagan’s nemesis Daniel Ortega seems poised for victory in the election to be held on Sunday.

As you would expect, the world’s premier democracy is assisting in the process of making sure the Nicaraguan people have a fair chance to choose their government. Yeah, right. In fact, the US has threatened to eliminate American investment in Nicaragua and warned of imminent violence in the streets should Ortega win. This paroxysm of illegal and idiotic reaction has, perhaps not surprisingly, brought an old criminal back to the scene of the crime.

More than once he said he was a private citizen on a private visit. But when your name is Oliver North and you are in Nicaragua on the eve of an election, there might, not for the first time, be a credibility problem.

[…]

Mr North was fired by Mr Reagan in 1987 after it was revealed that he sold weapons to Iran to fund the Contras, a scheme widely believed to have had the backing of the then president.

The decorated Vietnam veteran admitted he lied to Congress and was convicted of accepting an illegal gratuity, blocking an inquiry and destroying documents. The sentence was overturned on the grounds that his televised congressional testimony may have prejudiced his right to a fair trial.

Personally, I more or less believed Ronnie when he said he didn’t know. I mean, if you’re hatching a secret plan, why would you ask him what he thought? This was a President who believed he had fought in World War II because he was in some war movies. Perhaps Alzheimer’s was already clouding his mind, or perhaps he simply remained the idiot he’d always been. Either way, I can’t imagine him providing any useful information, advice, tips, or words of encouragement. Nor can I imagine him objecting on legal or moral grounds. Plus, you might have to check with Nancy’s astrologer to get the optimum moment for trading guns for hostages.

North claims to be a private citizen because the anti-Ortega he supports is not the anti-Ortega that the Bush administration supports.

The US ambassador and senior US officials have warned the impoverished nation of dire consequences if they vote for Ortega. But to Mr North’s chagrin they have backed another conservative candidate, Eduardo Montealegre, instead of Mr Rizo. The US embassy was said to be furious about his arrival, obliging him to call it a private visit.

Before flying out on Monday the former marine laid a wreath at Parque de la Paz, a monument to fallen Contra fighters. In an apparent reference to Mr Ortega’s regional allies, Mr North said Nicaragua had suffered enough from the influence of outsiders.

The Guardian doesn’t say whether Ollie meant that sarcastically; but I doubt he’s able to get past his inflated ego to realize the sheer hypocrisy he embodies.

Fortunately, it doesn’t look like American threats are much respected around the world these days. Sure, Bush is seen as the second-greatest danger to world peace, but everyone knows he’s got nothing to work with. After Tuesday he’ll have to beg the House for money to prosecute his illegal wars, and it’s unlikely he’ll have enough time to do so while he’s preparing his defense for all the illegal actions he’s taken.

So it appears that the Nicaraguans are ignoring this round of American threats. Ortega is polling around 33%, in an election where 35% of the vote plus a lead of at least five percentage points is enough to win the Presidency in the first round.

Apparently the Nicaraguans are still angry about those 30,000 deaths in the Contra war.

Posted by Chuck Dupree at November 04, 2006 04:58 AM

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