WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE – AT 7:58 P.M. ET:  Political Scientist Walter Russell Mead, a good guy and a voice of sanity in the academic world, performs a real service in giving us a list of the characters and institutions that have been supporting Muammar Gaddafi over the years.  Mead calls them "Gaddafi's Toads":

Gaddafi Toad Number One: The “Human Rights Commission” of the “United Nations”

Two: Gordon Brown and His Government

Gaddafi Toad Number Three: Hugo Chavez

Gaddafi Toad Number Four: Nicholas Sarkozy

Gaddafi Toad Number Five: Tony Blair

Gaddafi Toad Number Six: Louis Farrakhan

Gaddafi Toad Number Seven: Silvio Berlusconi

Eight: Fidel Castro

Nine: The London School of Economics

Ten: Delusional American College Professors

Read the article.  It's worth it.  The usual suspects are on that list, but there are certainly some disappointments, like Blair and Sarkozy.  But once again we see the level of collaboration that dictators have enjoyed.

I'd add one more name to Mead's list:  Nelson Mandela, the sainted one, who actually has a pretty dismal human rights record, and has been a Gaddafi pal for years.  Most mainstream media reporting from South Africa ended when apartheid ended, so the American audience has little understanding of the hypocrisy and cynicism that govern South Africa today.  A beacon of light it is not.

March 7, 2011