Despite his law firm’s ties, Giuliani slams Chavez

Rudolph W. Giuliani on Tuesday called Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez a dangerous foe of the United States -- even though Giuliani’s law firm lobbies for a U.S. branch of a Chavez-controlled oil company.

Giuliani never mentioned his law firm’s contract with Citgo Petroleum to a crowd of Latino small-business owners, even as he said it was Chavez’s vast oil wealth that gives the Venezuelan a platform for his anti-American activities in the region.

“We need a president who knows how to get things done so we don’t have to be sending money to Chavez,” Giuliani said, calling for energy efficiency to wean Americans from foreign oil.

“Who would listen to Chavez if he didn’t have all this oil money?” Giuliani asked.

Bracewell & Giuliani lobbies in Texas for Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s national oil company, controlled by Chavez.

Giuliani has made cutting reliance on foreign oil a key part of his pledge to fight terrorism, saying it’s a way to choke off funding for anti-American leaders like Chavez and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Chavez has called President Bush “the devil.”