"I would be happy to meet him," said Chomsky according to the New York Times.

The American author told the Times he received "10,000 e-mails" after Chavez recommended his 2003 book "Hegemony or Survival" in remarks before the United Nations General Assembly.

Chavez made headlines this week for railing against US "imperialism" in the eyebrow-raising speech.

Chomsky, 77, told the newspaper he would not use the same words -- "alcoholic," "sick man" and "tyrant" -- that Chavez used to describe President George W. Bush.

But he said he understood where the Venezuelan president was coming from.

"The Bush administration backed a coup to overthrow his government," Chomsky said. "Suppose Venezuela supported a military coup that overthrew the government of the United States? Would we think it was a joke?"

The leftist author, a linguistics scholar and longtime critic of US foreign policy, told the Times he is "quite interested" in Chavez's policies and finds many of them "quite constructive."

I guess communists birds of a feather...  Seems awfully capitalistic of Noam tho.

Breitbart.com