OIL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL?

Hugo Chavez’s goodwill oil offer would warm a capitalist’s heart. The leader of Venezuela and acclaimed foe of the Bush administration seized on Washington’s failure to deliver more funding for oil for the poor and offered 12 million gallons of home-heating oil at a cost 40 percent below market prices. Of course this is political, but whether the oil gets delivered or is stopped by the federal government, Mr. Chavez wins on humanitarian grounds.

This political moment was made possible by a reluctant White House and the U.S. Senate, which can’t find the compassion to pass added funding for the poor to heat their homes. The result is that states such as Maine are talking with officials in the Chavez government to see how they too might get some of the discounted oil.

Instead of action in Washington, it recently got Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho announcing from the floor, “I say to America, turn your thermostat down a few degrees, put on a sweater, shut portions of your house down and take literally tens, if not hundreds, of dollars off your heating bill in the course of a winter.” The sweaters have been on since September, and just how does turning down a thermostat save money when the oil tank is empty?

So Mr. Chavez steps nimbly in where most big oil companies didn’t bother to go. His government’s subsidiary, Citgo Petroleum accepted the spirit if not the letter of by 11 senators to big oil companies to donate some of their oil. Citgo is supposed to provide the oil to two U.S. nonprofit organizations, which would then get it to the poor in Boston and New York, which coincidentally are excellent media markets.

Making friends through oil in the United States is the continuation of a Chavez policy in Latin America, but it is particularly galling here because of the politics – Mr. Chavez’ socialism and his Bolivarian anti-corporate, anti-globalization is not the Bush administration’s idea of good governance. Mr. Chavez seems to look for chances to tweak the United States and highlight its shortcomings. He acted similarly when the administration was slow to react to Hurricane Katrina.

On the oil donation, the response should be simple: The United States is wealthy enough to take care of its elderly and its poor, and its government is wise enough put doing so ahead of another round of tax breaks that especially help the very rich. While it fails to pursue those priorities, it remains vulnerable to criticism and political opportunities such as this one.