with the speech or unsure what to think about it. Reaction of U.S. politicians Many U.S. politicians, from both houses of Congress, released a flurry of press releases in response to the statements Chávez made during his speech. Nancy Pelosi (D-California), the incoming Speaker of the House of Representatives (and an ardent critic of President Bush), called Chávez an "everyday thug" as opposed to the "modern day Simón Bolívar" that he "fancies himself to be". She also asserted that "Hugo Chávez abused the privilege that he had, speaking at the United Nations" and "he demeaned himself and he demeaned Venezuela." Representative Charles Rangel (D-New York) also said in a press release that "George Bush is the President of the United States and represents the entire country. Any demeaning public attack against him is viewed by Republicans and Democrats, and all Americans, as an attack on all of us". Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) called Chávez's comments "incendiary." He went onto to say "Let me put it this way, I can understand the frustration, ah, and the anger of certain people around the world because of George Bush's policies." Harkin continued on with what has been uniform and frequent criticism of the President Bush's foreign policy. "We tend to forget that a few days after 9-1-1 thousands, thousands of Iranians marched in a candlelight procession in Teheran in support of the United States. Every Muslim country was basically on our side. Just think, in five years, President Bush has squandered all that." Former President Bill Clinton (D-Arkansas) called the "personal demonization" a "mistake" that only hurt Chávez and his country. Responding to American political criticisms in the 10 October 2006 issue of Time magazine, Chávez said that he was not attacking Bush, but counterattacking. Chávez said that Bush had said much worse things about him, and that "Bush has been attacking the world, and not just with words--with bombs". He argued that he was reacting to what he perceived to be the "threat of a U.S. empire that uses the U.N. to justify its aggression against half the world." and that he wanted to "wake up U.S. and global public opinion" Reactions in Ecuador Rafael Correa — then a candidate for Ecuadorian President, and subsequently elected in November 2006 — said that calling George Bush the devil was an "insult to the devil because although he's malicious, [at least] he's intelligent." Correa,