“Senor Locopants,” as my wife likes to call him, Hugo Chavez, is trying to push through a part-nationalization of foreign oil interest in Venezuela to take advantage of the high oil price, thereby giving himself more revenues to pursue his ambitions.

Lord Brown, head of BP, reacted as follows:

“Venezuela’s demands for more (of producers’) oil revenue might scare off investment at a time when the nation is struggling to boost production and crude prices are at a record high.”

Gee, d’ya think? Meanwhile, half of Congress appears to be taking exactly the Chavez line, demanding a share of oil producers’ revenues. Lord Brown’s comment applies equally as much to Capitol Hill as it does to Caracas.