Dems ding the Diaz-Balarts, Lincoln hits Obama, CANF

National Democrats announced today they'll run Spanish language radio ads against Miami's three Cuban-American Republican members of Congress - the second time they've paid for ads in the districts once considered reliably Republican and not worth targeting.

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, one of the targets, delivered today's Republican Party of Florida critique of Barack Obama, and said he's not worried about the ads.

"I expect multiple attacks from them, it's election season, in the next 5 months," he said.

Diaz-Balart says Obama displays "inexperience and naivete" in dealing with Latin America, citing his opposition to the Colombia free trade agreement and his suggestion that he'd be open to meeting with Cuban leader Raul Castro, without preconditions.

"There are specific communities in Florida that are quite worried about (Obama's) positions and they really have to do with his inexperience and naivete," Diaz-Balart said. "Mr. Obama has a lot of explaining to do in the next months in Florida, to try to assure people that his inexperience and naivete are not as worrisome as they seem."

The call also morphed for a time into a critique of the Cuban American National Foundation, Obama's host Friday for a talk on Latin America.

Asked by a reporter about CANF's invitation to Obama, Diaz-Balart said the group had "long passed the ability to disappoint me. They are really irrelevant, non-existent. Basically they exist in people's Rolodexes, in the press's Rolodexes..."

CANF president Francisco "Pepe" Hernandez, who expects to host more than 900 people at the event tomorrow, said he was disappointed by Diaz-Balart's critique.

"It would be a better use of his time helping the community and advancing the interests of the community, rather than putting down an organization whose only interest is fighting Fidel Castro," Hernandez said.

Comments

[lakes305]

CANF really did not survive the passing of its great leader Jorge Mas Canosa. His son let Joe Garcia destroy the organization for good a few years ago.

[Free Dr. Biscet]

Is there anyone left on the CANF board of directors with any credibility?

[Stiles]

"Inexperience and Naivete"? In what, abiding by policies that have failed for half a century?! I thought the goal was to bring freedom to the Cuban people. The Diaz-Balarts, Ileana Ross-Lehtinen and every other hyphenated politician from Miami need Castro in power more than Castro needs us to lift the embargo. Without Castro, they'd have to face other issues, like why the Orange Line has yet to begin construction, why we're slashing tens of millions from education, why we have one of the poorest transportation systems in the nation, where the money for housing projects have gone, the necessity of tacky palm trees to line the streets of Kendall, Cutler Ridge and other places tourists never come within 15 miles of, why we pay heavily inflated property taxes, where that money goes to, where the extra cent for the sales tax is going to, the reason for turning the Palmetto into a toll road, the source of funding and contract bids for the new stadium where the Orange Bowl used to be, etc. It's time something was actually done for the Cuban people, not to mention the residents of Miami. Mas Santos is proudly carrying on the tradition of his honorable father while Diaz-Balart is carrying on the tradition of his family. After all, he is a relative to that scoundrel, Fidel Castro.