Bush critic rips Chavez speech

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- One of U.S. President George Bush's harshest critics has lashed out at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for remarks he made during a visit to a New York church.

U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., says he was offended by the Bush-bashing speech Chavez delivered at Harlem's Mount Olivet Baptist Church on Thursday, The Washington Times reports.

"You don't come into my country, you don't come into my congressional district and criticize my president," Rangel told reporters on Capitol Hill.

In a 2-hour address to the Harlem group, Chavez referred to the president as the devil and also called him "an alcoholic and a very sick man."

He mocked the president by mimicking a cowboy's gun-slinging stance.

Rangel said no foreign official should assume "Americans do not feel offended when you offend our chief of state."