As Joe Kennedy considers run, Chávez ties loom

As Joseph P. Kennedy II contemplates a race to reclaim the Senate seat held by his family for nearly half a century, his most formidable obstacle may not be a Massachusetts politician but a political leader some 2,000 miles away: President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

Over the past four years, Citizens Energy Corp., the signature nonprofit founded by Kennedy in 1979 as a political launching pad, has grown from a local charity serving 10,000 Massachusetts homes a year into a national effort delivering free fuel to 200,000 households in 23 states.

And Kennedy, a former US representative, has relied almost exclusively on Chávez, a vociferous critic of the US government, for that growth.

Since 2005, Citizens’ 877-JOE-4-OIL campaign has been sustained by the oil fields of Venezuela. Chávez, who controls the industry there, has delivered crude oil at no charge to a Citizens affiliate, which has resold it and used the money to pay for oil deliveries to America’s poor. In the past two years, Citizens has been given 83 million gallons of crude by Chávez and sold it for $164 million - money used to fund almost its entire philanthropic mission.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/06/as_joe_kennedy_considers_run_chvez_ties_loom/

Chavez for the express purpose of profiting this would be problematic, but the arrangement's pure purpose is to get affordable heat to people who have none or can scarcely afford what they need to live.

There's something in the Bible about clothing the naked and feeding the hungry, etc. I think Kennedy stands on well-established impulse in directing warmth to the needy against winter cold.

good reason to reject Joe Kennedy if he turns out to the nominee.

I'm waiting to see what happens in Massachusetts.

not always been wildly enthusiastic over Kennedy Democrats.

But it does seem to be Massachusetts. I don't think it's unreasonable for us to think that a Democrat, whether a Kennedy or not, has a really good shot at retaining that seat, and that Joe Kennedy meets all Constitutional criteria.

His last name is a plus and the soul fight for heating oil is consistent with the Kennedy clan's tradition of public service.

Because, yeah...his only mission with Chavez has been to bring oil to Massachusetts families who can't afford it.

I know that lots of people in different states badmouth him for his ties, through oil, to Hugo Chavez...but these people seem to be the ones who either don't have to deal with long, cold winters, or don't have problems heating their homes. Easy for them to be contemptuous if they don't have to suffer and they don't have to accept charity.

In any case, I've never heard a bad thing spoken about Joe Kennedy in Mass. and I do think he would be a big favorite. :)

on the people who are doing all the bitching here never having to face ongoing days and weeks of bitter cold.

And that were they to have to face winter like that they might temper their criticism of Joe Kennedy's organization.

like said, the Democrats are acting like beaten dogs.

reaction to Chavez as if that were the imperative and not JK's organization's mission of providing affordable heat to people facing the severity of winter.

The public may also shape the media. Corporatons control media; but the public consumes it, much in the same way they consume food. One may choose the Twinkie and a can of Coca-Cola or one may opt for the sprouts and green tea.

I think the key to this story on JK is some gamble Boston.com wishes to make that the Democratic voter in Massachusetts thinks that an arrangement with Chavez is more unsettling to American ideals than affordable heating oil is to people who are cold.

And in that gamble, I think they'll lose.

more palatable than Citizens Energy's are to Chavez, so long as we're making wild-ass associations.

Kennedy family-no personal profit-oil companies and govts whose purpose is to help poor = hypocrisy so laughable if not for implications on people whose lives are affected by policies of perpetrators of this sort of hypocrisy.

seat, I think he could clearly, compassionately, and convincingly make the case you just made, in suggesting that human beings should be possessed of the dignity and nobility sufficient to address the needs of someone who is cold in harsh climates during winter months.

That just seems to me to be an elemental decency. For the Boston.com editor to run "coverage" to the spirit of the contrary, I hope he, she, or they face such a winter climate some day without the ability to afford heat.

And THEN let's hear them caterwaul about Chavez.

As Joseph P. Kennedy II contemplates a race to reclaim the Senate seat held by his family for nearly half a century, his most formidable obstacle may not be a Massachusetts politician but a political leader some 2,000 miles away: President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

Over the past four years, Citizens Energy Corp., the signature nonprofit founded by Kennedy in 1979 as a political launching pad, has grown from a local charity serving 10,000 Massachusetts homes a year into a national effort delivering free fuel to 200,000 households in 23 states.

And Kennedy, a former US representative, has relied almost exclusively on Chávez, a vociferous critic of the US government, for that growth.

Since 2005, Citizens’ 877-JOE-4-OIL campaign has been sustained by the oil fields of Venezuela. Chávez, who controls the industry there, has delivered crude oil at no charge to a Citizens affiliate, which has resold it and used the money to pay for oil deliveries to America’s poor. In the past two years, Citizens has been given 83 million gallons of crude by Chávez and sold it for $164 million - money used to fund almost its entire philanthropic mission.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/06/as_joe_kennedy_considers_run_chvez_ties_loom/

The article said the oil was "given" by Chavez, not sold.

Oh but I forgot... Bush is Republican, so it's OK!

We had to hear it from Michael Moore. You sure wouldn't hear about the Bush-Bin Laden connection if you turned on your tv. But you can be sure that the media will be all over Joe Kennedy's association with Chavez.

The republicans will use it but it fill probably hit them in the face.

The "coverage" of the Chavez angle has a subterfuge component, IMO, and it smells a good deal like character smearing.

Too many MA residents benefited from Joe's help.

Why those silly editors over at Boston.com didn't think of that is anyone's guess!

that Senate seat to someone outside the family. Vote for the name you know.

BTW. This is a dupe of the thread started about a minute earlier. (edited to add)

What's next from these radical left wingers? Feeding the hungry? These communists must be rooted out before they can help anyone else.

I rather like that about Joe Kennedy II and if I lived in MA I'd gladly vote for him. B-)

When you: live in the north country, you heat with oil, are low income and it's the middle of Winter that oil from Citizen's Energy is a very real blessing. No one has to sign in blood or agree with Chavez on everything to accept the oil he sends up our way. Personally I pray like heck that he continues to do so... it's helped us immensely the for the last two years and it's darn bit better then the option of freezing up here in January/February.

This place is so fucking weird.