Just Thursday, Palestinian Authority leader and sometime terrorist Yasser Arafat endorsed Kerry. Why? Kerry did once call him a “statesman.” And, as his foreign minister noted, under Kerry “several staff members during Clinton’s administration would return.”<br> Kerry has also won praise from Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s totalitarian dictator, who has murdered millions of his own people. Kim calls Bush “human scum.” But he likes Kerry’s support of two-way talks between North Korea and the U.S. — which would give the “beloved leader” a big negotiating advantage.
Then there’s Fidel Castro — another communist tyrant smitten with the Massachusetts senator. While Kerry delivered his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, Castro celebrated by running a bootlegged copy of “Fahrenheit 9/11” over Cuban TV.
Don’t forget former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Last year, Mahathir, who is often called “moderate,” said Jews “rule this world by proxy.” This year, he urged U.S. Muslims to vote for Kerry “in the name of Islam.”<br> We all know, of course, whom President Jacques Chirac of France and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany prefer. Polls show Bush is overwhelmingly unpopular in those countries. And neither man has made a secret of his contempt for the cowboy from Texas.