Desperately coercing El Salvador

How dare John Kerry call the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq a "coalition of the coerced and the bribed," said George W. in his acceptance speech tonight. Bush went on to mention some of the members of the coalition -- including El Salvador -- to support the supposed absurdity of Kerry's charge.

Judge for yourself whether the following statement might not qualify as coercion, or whether George W. would tolerate for one minute politicians in Paris saying the same thing about the Republican party:

Days before the March presidential elections in El Salvador, State Department Special Envoy for Central America Otto Reich was quoted in local papers (a conference call, set up in ARENA party headquarters) as saying: “We are concerned about the impact that an FMLN victory would have on the commercial, economic, and migration-related relations that the United States has with El Salvador.”