New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez took to the Senate floor tonight to deliver a withering denounciation of proposed changes to U.S.-Cuba policy, all but pleading with President Barack Obama to reject the changes -- which have been tucked into a massive spending bill being debated this week in the Senate.
"The process by which these changes have been forced upon this body is so deeply offensive to me, and so deeply undemocratic, that it puts the omnibus appropriations package in jeopardy, in spite of all the other tremendously important funding that this bill would provide," said Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who chairs the Democrats' Senate candidate recruiting committee.
"If the omnibus bill is signed by the president as is," Menendez warned, "He will be extending a hand while the Castro regime maintains its iron-handed clenched fist."
He also had a few choice words for those advocating opening up relations with Cuba, saying "they advocate for labor rights in the U.S. but are willing to accept forced labor in Cuba. They talk about democracy in Burma, but are willing to sip rum with Cuba's dictators."
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