Obama forgot (or just ignored) the Castro Rule of Florida campaigning

Of the simple rules in Florida elections, few stand out like this one: Don’t look wobbly over Castro — especially in an election year.

President Barack Obama’s administration didn’t seem to get the memo.

The administration granted the niece of Fidel Castro a visa to speak at a gay-rights summit in California last week. Mariela Castro repaid the kindness by engaging in the same type of Orwellian and hypocritical doubletalk as her uncle and father, Cuban President Raul Castro.

Then she made sure to bang in the final public-relations coffin nail.

"I would vote for President Obama," she said, according to Agence France-Presse. "I think he’s sincere and speaks from the heart."

Count that de facto endorsement of Obama as an independent expenditure for his challenger, Mitt Romney. The Republican’s campaign made sure to denounce the Castro clan at every turn.

AFP noted that Castro’s trip has been denounced by "opposition Republicans." But it utterly failed to mention that Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Broward congresswoman, and Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (the only statewide elected Democrat) also opposed the granting of her visa.

Nelson specifically raised the issue of a wrongfully jailed American in Cuba.

"Allowing Raul’s daughter to come to the U.S. when the regime still holds Alan Gross makes no sense," Nelson said.

Privately, some of Obama’s biggest Florida supporters agree. They just can’t fathom this. It’s not as if Castro is some wayward child. She’s a face and mouthpiece of the dictatorship.

Obama’s defenders are quick to counter with two points: 1) During President George W. Bush’s term, Castro was allowed to travel three times to the United States and 2) Cuban-hardliners who opposed the visa opposed Obama anyway. So it was a wash.

Wrong.

Column here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/27/2819980/obama-forgot-to-read-the-castro.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy

Barack Obama scores the endorsement of Fidel Castro's niece, Mariela Castro

AFP is reporting that Fidel Castro's niece, Mariela Castro, "hailed" President Obama for supporting gay marriage and the loosening of US-Cuba travel restrictions.

Speaking at a gay-rights conference in California, she also called the largely Republican Cuban-American community "a small group of delinquents."

"I would vote for President Obama," she said. "I think he's sincere and speaks from the heart."

AFP noted that her trip has been denounced by "opposition Republicans," but it totally failed to mention that Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Broward congresswoman, and Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (the only statewide elected Democrat) also opposed the granting of her visa.

Nelson specifically raised the issue of a wrongfully jailed American in Cuba.

"Allowing Raul’s daughter to come to the U.S. when the regime still holds Alan Gross makes no sense," Nelson said.

Castro apparently never mentioned Gross. But, according to an AP article, she made sure to give lecture about "justice and social equality."

Really. She said that. While Gross rots in jail.

"If we don't change our patriarchal and homophobic culture...we cannot advance as a new society, and that's what we want, the power of emancipation through socialism," she said . "We will establish relationships on the basis of social justice and social equality...It seems like a Utopia, but we can change it."

Nor, apparently, did she say that her uncle, with the support of her dad, rounded up gays during the AIDS crisis and had them sequestered in homosexual shtetls. Also, during the 1980 Cuban boatlift, Fidel Castro kicked gays out of Cuba, labeling them as "undesirables." (Old Miami Herald story in text file here)

It's unclear if reporters got near her. If so, hopefully someone asked her to square the contradiction of the scion and supporter of a dictator lecturing in the U.S. about equality and justice.

**Update: Republican Mitt Romney's campaign wants Obama's campaign to disavow the endorsement:

 “President Obama should disavow the endorsement of the daughter of Cuban dictator Raul Castro. It is galling that an envoy from a Communist regime would come to our country and lecture the American people on who to vote for while the regime refuses to hold free and fair elections and systematically violates the human rights of its people. The decision by the Obama Administration to welcome Mariela Castro to our shores—a decision that has received rightful criticism from both Republicans and Democrats—continues to be an egregious affront to the people of Cuba and those who love freedom everywhere.” – Romney Campaign Adviser Alberto Martinez

Invoking DNC chair and Sen. Nelson, RNC's Priebus calls on Obama to revoke Castro visa

Talk about strange political bedfellows. Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus is invoking Democratic Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in his call to revoke the visas of Mariela Castro et al.

Here's what Priebus just tweeted: "Officially invite @DWSTweets to join me in Miami for a press conference calling on @BarackObama to revoke visas granted to Cuban officials"

Doubt he'll get a response.

Background story is here. Press release follows:

WASHINGTON - Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement calling on President Obama to revoke the visas that were recently granted to Cuban officials:

"President Obama should listen to his Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Senator Bill Nelson of Florida. He should change course and revoke the visas granted to Cuban officials. America should not be in the business of welcoming leaders of the oppressive Castro regime to our country," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.

"Democrats and Republicans disagree on many things, so when we come together on an issue, President Obama should take notice. As Senator Nelson said, granting visas to the Castro regime simply 'makes no sense.'

"At a time when an American sits in Cuban jail for helping the Jewish community gain access to the Internet, we should not be rolling out the red carpet for Communists with an atrocious human rights record. America must stand for freedom and with those fighting for it."

Bill Nelson disses Obama admin': Mariela Castro visa "makes no sense."

Add Sen. Bill Nelson to the chorus of elected officials who are bothered by the decision to grant Mariela Castro a visa to visit the United States. The niece of Fidel and the daughter of Raul Castro, she's a face of the regime, which has jailed American contractor Alan Gross on trumped up charges.

“Allowing Raul’s daughter to come to the U.S when the regime still holds Alan Gross makes no sense,” Nelson said in a written statement.

Uh-oh. Looks like Nelson's running off the Democratic reservation. The party has been actively battling Republican attacks on Obama for allowing the Castro visa. They note that George W. Bush's administration allowed Castro to visit the United States three times.

But Nelson, who likely will face a tough re-election challenge, likely has no interest in invoking George Bush as a defense of Obama -- especially if the administration makes a move that just doesn't help with the Florida electorate at large and that hurts with the Cuban-American electorate in specific.

Hypocrisy alert: Jeb Bush's brother, George W. Bush, laid out "welcome mat for Communist" Mariela Castro three times

The Jeb Bush-led Hispanic Leadership Network, which has close ties to former Gov. Jeb Bush (a top adviser), sent out a screamer of a press release headlined "Obama Lays Welcome Mat for Communist at U.S. Front Door" because the president's administration granted a visa to Raul Castro's daughter. The subhead: Mariela Castro Espin's Visit "Sends the Wrong Message."

But the press release is the result of some mixed Republican messaging as well because the administration of Bush's brother, former President George W. Bush, gave Castro the right to travel not just once -- but three times.

"Mariela Castro visited once in 2001 and twice in 2002.  I can’t discuss her visas specifically, but you can assume she needed one to travel," State Department spokesman William Ostick said in an email response to a Miami Herald inquiry.

But the Hispanic Leadership Network says there's a big difference between the Bush-era visits of Castro and the most recent approval by Obama. Here's the HLN statement:

"The situations are not the least bit similar as the human rights situation has deteriorated.  An American citizen is locked up in a Cuban jail now for trying to provide internet access to Cubans, and in the last few months since Pope Benedict’s visit, Cubans have lived under even more fear as they cope with a large round up of dissidents and activists. Furthermore, Mariela Castro is now the daughter of the President of Cuba and a leader in the Cuban Communist Party."

The Republican National Committee doubled down in a press release "on Obama Rolling out the Red Carpet for the Castro Family." Earlier, it hosted a conference call to bash Obama over Ms. Castro. No mention of President Bush's commie complicity there, either.

Democrats latched on to the double talk.

"Republicans need to stop playing with people's emotions when it comes to Cuba," Obama surrogate Freddy Balsera said in a statement. "While they grab headlines criticizing the President and distorting his record on Cuba, they avoid saying that Mariela Castro actually received a visa to visit the US in 2002 under the Bush Administration. In fact, the top State Department Official in charge of Latin America at the time was a Cuban American. Where was their criticism then? Nowhere, because ultimately this is all about politics for them"

** This post has been updated

Obama's admin draws fire for granting visa to Raul Castro's sexologist daughter

A decision by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to make an exemption and issue a visa to Mariela Castro, the daughter of Cuban ruler Raul Castro, has drawn irate criticisms from Cuban-American lawmakers and activists.

The visa approval came amid reports by two knowledgeable U.S. officials that Cuban authorities over the past year have increasingly harassed U.S. diplomats in Havana and tightly limited their travels around the communist-ruled island.

Mariela Castro, a sexologist who heads the Cuban National Center for Sex Education in Havana, is expected to participate in the four-day conference of the Latin American Studies Association, which begins Wednesday in San Francisco. Made up largely of U.S. academics, LASA generally invites 20-30 Cubans to its conferences, and a few are usually denied visas.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., criticizing the visa for Castro, said she is “a vociferous advocate of the regime and opponent of democracy, who has defended the regime’s brutal repression of democracy activists.”

The U.S. government and LASA should not be “in the business of providing a totalitarian regime, like the one in Cuba, with a platform from which to espouse its twisted rhetoric,” Menendez noted.

Issuing a visa to Castro while Cuban authorities hold U.S. government subcontractor Alan Gross “hostage in a Cuban prison,” only “sends the wrong message to the regime and to Cuba’s struggling opposition movement,” he added.

Menendez also argued that Mariela Castro, a prominent member of the Cuban Communist Party, should have been denied a visa under U.S. regulations that prohibit visitor visas to “officers or employees” of the government or party.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/17/2803924/us-visa-to-mariela-castro-sparks.html#storylink=cpy

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/17/2803924/us-visa-to-mariela-castro-sparks.html#storylink=cpy

Marco Rubio calls decision to grant Raul Castro's daughter a U.S. visa 'outrageous'

Sen. Marco Rubio has put up a YouTube video criticizing the U.S. government for granting a visa to Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela, to attend a conference in San Francisco.

In the video, Rubio, a Florida Republican, called Mariela Castro "an arm of his regime" and said the decision was "outrageous" and "an enormous mistake."

"Not only that, it sends a terrible message to the democratic movement in Cuba, to those brave people in Cuba who every single day resist and speak out against the tyranny of the Castro brothers," Rubio said.

Rubio joins the chorus of Cuban-Americans in Congress, including Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, slamming the decision.

Read Rubio's statement after the jump.

Cuban Americans in Congress call for meeting with IKEA

The six Cuban-Americans in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday demanded “an urgent meeting” with the head of IKEA in North America to discuss whether the company used Cuban prison labor to make some of its furniture in the 1980s.

“It is the responsibility of every company to ensure that its products and their respective components are derived from responsible labor practices,” the two Senators and four House members wrote in a letter to IKEA’s Mike Ward.

“They certainly should not derive from the dark prisons of authoritarian regimes that repress their own populations, including the denial of basic workers’ rights,” added the letter to Ward, head of IKEA North America.

It was signed by Sens. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, and Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, as well as South Florida Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and David Rivera and New Jersey Democrat Albio Sires.

More from Juan Tamayo here.

Gov. Rick Scott's biggest failure: Chief of Staff Steve MacNamara

Rick Scott’s biggest failure as governor has a name: Steve MacNamara.

An at-times ethically challenged Tallahassee insider, MacNamara was hired by the neophyte governor to avoid the very type of major embarrassment Scott suffered last week.

Last Tuesday at a Miami Freedom Tower event, Scott ceremonially signed a law cracking down on firms that do business in Cuba and Syria. But he then issued a letter that called the very law he signed unenforceable and unconstitutional because it infringes on foreign trade.

The about-face transformed Scott from Cuban exiles’ toast of the town into a suspected foe politically undermining their bill to help big business.

The Cuban-American Republican lawmakers at Scott’s side were blindsided by his letter. They wondered if his office was double dealing. Even the team supporting Attorney General Pam Bondi — Scott’s most-powerful and helpful elected ally in the state — is suspicious.

So the governor lost face with big political allies. His poll numbers remain dangerously low. But MacNamara gets to keep his $189,000 annual salary to keep Scott’s administration running smoothly.

“Clearly,” said U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, “the governor’s staff has not served him well and has really hurt him.”

The Rick Scott of 2010 could have predicted as much when he campaigned against Tallahassee insiders. But after a few rookie missteps, Scott last year hired MacNamara from the office of the Senate President, who incidentally had one of the most politically embarrassing years under MacNamara’s watch.

In the Senate, the AP reported Friday, MacNamara "helped steer a no-bid consulting contract worth $360,000 to a friend who now leads a task force rooting out state government waste."

Questions about MacNamara’s integrity go back a decade. In between his stints as staff chief to the Florida House Speaker in 1999 and 2000, MacNamara secretly worked out a lobbying gig to help persuade the state to reverse course and permit a cement plant on the scenic Ichetucknee River. More than two years later, the Commission on Ethics cleared him after another lobbyist and MacNamara ally changed his story.

Once on Scott’s team, MacNamara the insider got to work.

MacNamara walled off the governor from others, played agency heads against each other, hired loyalists at six-figure salaries (paying them more than women in the same jobs), forced out his rivals and helped out his buddies, according to a Herald/Times story Sunday. Tea partiers have expressed concern, noting the governor has vetoed less government spending — a favorite Tallahassee endeavor — when compared to Scott’s first year without MacNamara.

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/06/2786591/gov-rick-scotts-biggest-failure.html#storylink=cpy

 

Florida law against Cuba may help Cuba

The oddest thing about Florida’s new state law to punish foreign companies that do business in Cuba is not that it is an election season gimmick by Republican lawmakers to win Cuban-American votes, nor that it is likely to cost taxpayers a lot before it ends up defeated in the courts. It’s that it would actually help Cuba’s dictatorship.

Before we get into why, let’s look at the facts. The new state law, signed Tuesday by Gov. Rick Scott, prohibits local governments from hiring firms that do business in Cuba or Syria for contracts worth more than $1 million, and forbids Florida state pension funds from investing in these firms.

Drafters of the law tell me there are about 200 foreign companies that could fall into one of these two categories, including Brazil’s Miami-based engineering and construction giant Odebrecht USA, whose parent company has a subsidiary that is upgrading Cuba’s port of Mariel.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, U.S. Rep. David Rivera (R-Miami), one of the most vocal backers of the new state law, rejected criticism that it is unconstitutional, and that it will scare away foreign investments from the state.

More here

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/02/2780050/florida-law-against-cuba-may-help.html#storylink=cpy