But!
. . .the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, Thomas Shannon, said the law isn't an issue for the United States.``The enabling law isn't anything new in Venezuela. It's something valid under the constitution,'' Tom Shannon, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told reporters in Colombia.
``As with any tool of democracy, it depends how it is used,'' he added. ``At the end of the day, it's not a question for the United States or for other countries, but for Venezuela.''
In an unprecedented lapse of sanity a Bush Administration official speaks truth to power in a statement that conflicts directly with that of his boss. Only one will survive.
