i think a lot of the sympathy the far left has with certain left-leaning dictators (chavez and castro) is due to the fact they believe in their righteousness and therefore anyone who does things they agree with can be a sympathetic character. once the blinders go on, nothing else those leaders do will change their minds.

in the other example -- sympathy for gaddaffi/qaddaffi/whatever -- it's due to the fact that any sort of militaristic campaign is automatically evil and therefore they must be ok if we're dropping bombs on them. in other words, it's a total knee-jerk reaction to the situation. i wouldn't call it a love of dictators so much as a hatred of US military power.

it's a similar phenomenon the dems and repubs display when they play "gotcha last" with each other. they'll automatically oppose anything the other side does because they can't give the perception they may actually agree with something their perceived opponents have said or done. in this case, far lefties are so convinced that military campaigns of any sort are pure unadulterated evil that they can't bring themselves to admit they might be useful or justified in some certain situations.