During a 25th anniversary celebration of the Sandinista revolution last week, Borge declared that President Bush was "demented, crazy and paranoid."

But the aging rebel told the gathering that Sen. Kerry was somebody he looked forward to doing business with as president of the United States, calling the top Democrat "a more sensible and balanced man, [who] would improve relations between the U.S. and us."

Borge's warm feeling toward Kerry undoubtedly emanates from the trip Kerry and Sen. Tom Harkin made to Nicaragua in 1986 to urge then-Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega not to knuckle under to Reagan administration pressure on their Communist regime.

A week later, Ortega traveled to Moscow to get his marching orders from the Politboro, leaving Kerry and his fellow Dems with major egg on their faces.

Years after the Sandinstas were voted out of office in U.S.-backed elections, Borge was still arming for a return to power and was discovered with a cache of surface-to-air missiles in 1993 in apparent preparation for a new war.

The new Kerry backer also ran a kidnap ring and has ties to Basque terrorists in Spain, the Journal said.

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