Spin Dry

Unless she wants to get strip-searched next time she's in a foreign country. And, make no mistake, the way this Administration behaved during the recent UN Bushbashopalooza has given quite a lot of countries to be ready and eager to deal out the diplomatic payback. First, Hugo Chaez's head of security was not allowed into the country. Imagine the reaction if W. flew to China and they told him that no Secret Service agents were allowed. Kind of the same thing.

Now, this. Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolas Maduro received this treatment at the airport while trying to leave the US:

Maduro told CNN Espanol shortly after being released that he was confined to a small room and told to remove his clothes.

Maduro said that when he explained that he was the Venezuelan foreign minister and showed his diplomatic passport, he said he was threatened, pushed and yelled at by immigration and police officials.

"They were violating diplomatic conventions," he said.

Yeah, way to go, guys. You've just committed an enormous breach of diplomatic etiquette, tantamount to shitting in the punch bowl during a wedding reception. It will be noted and remembered.

Chavez told Venezuela's state TV broadcaster that U.S. officials alleged that Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro had links to a failed coup that Chavez led in Venezuela in 1992.

Two questions. First, why didn't they do the same to Chavez, then, or was that just too obvious, and they had to fuck with an underling to get revenge for his devil comments about W? Second, W. tried to start a coup in Venezuela, and far more recently than 1992. Why isn't he detained in airports here? Hell, why isn't he just detained?

This, though, is yet another example of the Administration being absolutely clueless when it comes to international relations. Now, by our precedent, diplomats can be abused. Add that to the list, and remember -- from now on, when captured soldiers or American journalists or American citizens are tortured and abused, or American diplomats or officials are strip searched at random, our government has absolutely lost the moral authority to say one damn thing about it.

So, next time you go overseas, Condi, get ready for the rubber glove treatment on your way home. If not a rubber hose.