Having warmed a few hearts and many homes with his discounted oil to states last winter, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is reportedly making a similar offer for next winter to Europeans who struggle to pay their heating bills. Meanwhile, the Bush administration recently took the largely symbolic step of banning arms sales to Venezuela because of Mr. Chavez’s lack of cooperation with the war on terrorism. Both are overtly political acts, but the United States can do more to get itself out of a name-calling match that is an embarrassment.

President Chavez’s taunts of President Bush – “the world’s biggest terrorist,” “Satan,” among others – would seem merely silly if they weren’t backed up with anti-Democratic reforms in Venezuela and significant arms purchases by Mr. Chavez in Russia and Spain. (The Bush administration has likened Mr. Chavez to Hitler and called him “the most dangerous man in the region.”)

The arms may only reflect Mr. Chavez’s often-stated fear that the United States soon will attack his nation. There’s no evidence for this, but it does provide a cover for his purchase, according to news reports, of attack and transport helicopters, patrol boats, military transport airplanes and 100,000 assault rifles. When you’re the world’s seventh-largest producer of oil, you can do this.

The State Department seems fully aware of the asymmetrical politics involved in this conflict – anti-Americanism puts the United States at a substantial disadvantage – and has been working for months to find ways to support the region generally.

Of the possible responses to this situation, admitting the shortcomings in the Free Trade Areas of the Americas would be the most useful beginning for the United States. The deal appears to be stuck anyway on agricultural issues.

Taking some time to rethink parts of it would remove an excuse for accusing the United States of taking advantage of poorer nations to its south. Increasing aid, which had been reduced in recent years, wouldn’t hurt either.

Jorge G. Castaneda, former foreign minister of Mexico, wrote not long ago that the Bush administration could help itself by building on the positive work of commissions of the past by creating a commission made up of well-respected representatives from the United States and Latin America to address, among other issues, Mr. Chavez’s attempt, “with some success, to split the hemisphere in two: for or against Chavez, for or against the United States. Whenever this hap-pens, everyone loses.”

One of the best things the Bush administration has done recently is to more often ignore the taunts. A New York Times story this week suggests other Latin American leaders are growing tired of the divisiveness urged by Mr. Chavez and are too busy running for election or running their countries to pick fights with the United States.

A U.S. campaign of quiet diplomacy could do much to reinforce that idea and cool the verbal feud. Acting soon rather than waiting for positions to harden could prevent this nation from wondering how, a decade from now, a few taunts became so serious.