Venezuela's Hugo Chavez Still Has Bush On The Brain

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez still has a thing for former President George W. Bush.

Henny Ray Abrams/AP Photo

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez still has a thing for former President George W. Bush.

Henny Ray Abrams/AP Photo

Former President George W. Bush may be out of office but that didn't stop Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez from still using his old nemesis as a whipping boy during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly Thursday.

Chavez said of the area around the podium: "It doesn't smell like sulfur. It's gone." Instead he said he smelled "hope."

Those were allusions to Chavez's 2006 UN appearance where he called Bush "the devil" and to President Barack Obama who has made "hope" his stock in trade. The smell of sulfur has of course traditionally been associated in literature and folklore with hell and Satan.

Then there was this Bush-inspired Chavez line: "Please don't throw a shoe at me."

The question now is what will Chavez do for an encore without Bush's presence to offer him more material?