Jack Kemp has been getting quite a bit of attention lately for his relationship with Samir Vincent, a secret agent of Saddam Hussein who was recently convicted in the United Nations oil-for-food scandal.

Now, in the DC Examiner, Thor Halvorssen raises troubling questions about another Jack Kemp associate: Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez:

Jack Kemp, the businessman, was recently negotiating a highly questionable billion-dollar oil deal with Venezuela’s Chavez. Kemp stood to make up to $50 million in commissions….

Kemp made high-profile “courtesy” visits and wined and dined with Hugo Chavez and his ministers in 2002. Weeks later, a contract dated Jan. 17, 2003, was circulated between Free Market Petroleum, where Kemp is chairman, and the Chavez government. That Kemp, the GOP’s 1996 vice presidential nominee, even would consider doing business with the Chavez government raises troubling ethical and political questions…..

Kemp has used his political capital to open doors for Chavez. In May of 2003, he tried to charm the staff of The Wall Street Journal editorial page into abandoning its opposition to Chavez’s undemocratic behavior.

Read the whole thing.

Related:
Hugo Chavez vs. the Media