High Level U.S. Diplomat Meets With Chavez

He's promising the Venezuelan madman he'll soon be meeting with Barack Obama, so I'm assuming he's now the de facto Secretary of State while Hillary Clinton is off negotiating the return of the Honduran thug to power.

Sean Penn, the Hollywood star who wants to be a journalist, has now become an amateur diplomat by visiting America's noisiest enemies in the Southern Hemisphere and promising to relay their messages back to Washington.

After Penn's visit with Hugo Chavez in Caracas on Wednesday, the Venezuelan strongman said he had discussed politics with Penn, who told him he would soon see President Obama.

"Chavez said he'd asked Penn to tell Obama he should take action to earn his Nobel Peace Prize, and should scrap a plan for the US military to increase its presence at bases in Colombia," the Associated Press reported on their session.

"They gave him the Nobel Prize -- very well, now he should earn it," admonished the socialist Chavez, paraphrasing his friend, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore.

Penn had come from Cuba, where he reportedly tried to meet with his other hero, Fidel Castro, 83, who hasn't given an interview to a Western journalist since he was felled by intestinal illness three years ago.

The Oscar winner's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, didn't know about Penn's visits with either Castro or Obama. State Department spokesman Noel Clay told Page Six, "Sean Penn is a private person. He's entitled to his views and opinions. He doesn't speak for the US government."

The two were later spotted canoodling over a candle-lit dinner at a Caracas hotspot. They were using candles, of course, since the Marxist dreamstate is running out of electricity.

I notice Penn is wearing a Venceremos t-shirt. Nothing like proudly announcing you're a Communist.