¡Ay Papí!

A two-fer from the Wall Street Journal's Opinion page on Democrats, Chavez and the virtues of free trade for US business and relations with foreign governments. Somewhere, Hayek is smiling. The Money Quote:

These Democrats deride any link between Hugo Chávez and trade as a "scare tactic," as if greater economic prosperity had no political consequences.

These are the same Democrats who preach the virtues of "soft power" and diplomacy, while deriding Mr. Bush for being too quick to use military force. But trade is a classic form of soft power that would expand U.S. and Latin ties in a web of commercial interests. More than 8,000 U.S. companies currently export to Colombia, nearly 85% of which are small and medium-sized firms.