A revolutionary's revival

Call me perverse, but I think there's something wonderful about Reagan's old nemesis Daniel Ortega sweeping back into power in Nicaragua.

Even old Ollie North made his way there to declare a victory for Ortega to be "the worst thing" for Nicaraguans. Because, after the carnage that Reagan and North inflicted on Nicaragua throughout the eighties, Ollie really is the best man to tell Nicaraguans what is good for them.

Failed Reagan administration efforts to oust Ortega capped a legacy of U.S. meddling in this desperately poor nation of 5.7 million people, starting with adventurer William Walker's quest to annex Nicaragua as a slave state in the 1850s. Skirting a ban on U.S. training and funding of the contras, Reagan aides financed the rebels in their bloody civil war by illegally selling arms to Iran in the Iran-Contra scandal.

So the Nicaraguan election has yielded the result that the Bush administration most feared. Let's hope, as Americans go to the polls today, that it's a portent of things to come.

tag: Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, Oliver North, election, victory,