twerpMarco Rubio was born in the U.S. Like many Americans, his parents were economic refugees from Cuba, looking for better opportunities for their family. Rubio has stopped, but he used to routinely lie and tell people they were political refugees fleeing Castro. Eventually someone pointed out that when they arrived, the political refugees were fleeing the U.S.-backed right-wing dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, whose fascist regime wasn't toppled by Castro until 1959, years after the Rubios were settled in America.Since President Obama's announcement of a very popular new path forward between the U.S. and Cuba, Rubio has tried to make himself-- even more than Ted Cruz-- the spokesperson of old-line opposition. He isn't persuading anyone that he has any worthwhile ideas about U.S.-Cuba relations. And he's coming across to a public that has largely barely heard of him as an hysterical, unhinged, nasty-minded twerp. When Rand Paul announced that he supports Obama's policy on Cuba, Rubio came unglued.
Rubio isn’t mincing words when it comes to his Republican colleague Sen. Rand Paul’s support for the U.S.’s new Cuba policy."Like many people who have been opining, he has no idea what he’s talking about," Rubio said Thursday on Fox News’ The Kelly Report...."The 50-year embargo just hasn’t worked, if the goal was regime change, it sure doesn’t seem to be working," Paul, Kentucky’s junior senator, said during an interview this week. "Probably, it punishes the people more than the regime because the regime can blame the embargo for hardship."But Rubio pushed back on Paul’s claim, saying, "I would expect that people would understand that if they just took a moment to analyze that, they would realize that the embargo is not what’s hurting the Cuban people, it’s the lack of freedom and the lack of competent leaders."
Polling shows that a broad spectrum of Americans want to move forward on Cuba-- even among Cuban-Americans in Florida!
A Florida International University poll of Cuban-Americans from June found that a strong majority-- 68 percent-- favors reestablishing diplomatic relations with the island country, and 69 percent favor lifting travel restrictions.The same poll from 2004 found that only 39 percent of Cuban-Americans favored reestablishing diplomatic ties with Cuba, with 52 percent in opposition. In 1993, the same poll found that 80 percent favored the policy of no diplomatic ties with Cuba.In addition, 52 percent of Cuban-Americans now oppose the U.S. trade embargo, with 71 percent saying it hasn’t worked. The same poll from 2004 found that strong majority-- 59 percent-- in favor of continuing the trade restrictions. In 1993, 85 percent favored tightening the embargo.The trends among Cuban-Americans in Florida mirror how voters nationally view U.S. policy toward Cuba.
It certainly helps with U.S. foreign relations in the rest of Latin America, where Obama's move is being widely cheered. Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil: "We never thought we would see this moment... a moment which marks a change in civilization." Even Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro was impressed: "We have to recognize the gesture of President Barack Obama, a brave gesture and historically necessary, perhaps the most important step of his presidency."Rubio, meanwhile, comes across as angry and wedded to outdated, failed policies and special interests that conflict with American national interests. "I don’t care," he hissed, "if the polls say that 99 percent of people believe we should normalize relations in Cuba." Rubio has turned himself into a national joke, representing the perspective primarily of elderly-- pretty much much over retirement age-- right-wing Cubans and of the U.S. sugar producers, who fear open markets, who have helped finance his career.Of course, Rubio isn't alone here. Many South Florida Republican politicians have used the Cuba issue as the basis for their entire careers and, like Rubio, have been financed by the Fanjul brothers, the sugar barons who know their empire will collapse if less expensive Cuban sugar is sold in the U.S. (This is also why crooked Democrats like Fanjul-pawn Debbie Wasserman Schultz is, once again, standing with the GOP against progress. Her Florida House colleagues from across the aisle are coming across as crazy and, frankly, unAmerican, as Rubio. Foolishly, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart are sticking with Rubio.
Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart said the Republican Congress would seek to maintain economic sanctions.“There are a lot of questions about the legality of what he says,” Ros-Lehtinen said of Obama’s action.She added that she finds it “ironic” that the Cuban revolution was premised on saving the island from the rich. She argued that corporations are poised to benefit most from the opening of economic activity with the U.S.“We are saying to the Yankee imperialist pigs, come and own a piece of Cuba, we are for sale, and those who have money, come on over because it’s a fire sale,” Ros-Lehtinen said....Diaz-Balart accused the Obama administration, including former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, of lying about their negotiations with Cuba.“Yesterday they did exactly what they claimed they would never do,” re-establish ties without significant concessions toward democracy including a free press, Diaz-Balart said.“It shows a deep level of cynicism to then claim he is doing this to help the Cuban people,” he said.
Diaz-Balart has a relatively safe seat. The only thing safe about Ros-Lehtinen's is the protection she's gotten from Wasserman Schultz and Steve Israel. She is one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the House, sitting in district where Obama beat Romney 130,020 (53%) to 114,096 (47%). It was the bluest district in the country Steve Israel and his corrupt DCCC refused to contest in 2014. With Wasserman Schultz having lost political clout within the Democratic Party, there's no reason to think she can continue preventing the DCCC from taking out Ros-Lehtinen. Now would be a great time to start recruiting. I wonder if Annette Taddeo would be willing to try again.
