What do Sean Penn and Hassan Nasrallah Have in Common?

They seem to hold the same opinion of Hugo Chavez. Just a few months ago, Sean Penn offered this assessment of the Venezuelan dictator in the Nation magazine:

"It's true, Chávez may not be a good man. But he may well be a great one."

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, praised Chavez in similar terms yesterday. In a speech delivered via videotape to Hezbollah supporters in Beirut, Nasrallah lauded Venezuela for expelling Israel's ambassador to that country in response to Israeli operations in Gaza that Chavez himself described as a "holocaust." The quote from Al Jazeera:

"Arab governments must learn from this great Latin American leader to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people and must cut relations with Israel," Nasrallah said.

One wonders if Sean Penn is at all troubled by the fact that his affection for this "great man" is shared by one of the world's most notorious terrorists. Probably not. But perhaps Barack Obama, who is reported to be considering Chavez as the test case for his program of direct, presidential talks with anti-American dictators, will rethink the wisdom of sitting down unconditionally with a man who, in addition to his many other offenses against democracy and human rights, is now being heralded by Hezbollah as the very model of anti-Zionism.