Will Florida's Uber-Republicans Dis Dubya?

[shereads]

The head of the Cuban American National Foundation said this week on one of Miami's Spanish-language radio stations that George W. Bush has proven himself to be untrustworthy.

I don't know where he got that idea, but when the CANF doesn't fully support a Republican candidate, we have what can only be called a cold day in hell.

Poor Jeb. George and Barbara will expect him to salvage South Florida for his brother once again. This time, he may have to parachute into Cuba, kidnap Elian Gonzalez and return him to the Miami cousins.

Lay low, Elian. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

What's their beef? They want Bush to put more female hormones in Fidel's vegetable garden?

---dr.M.

 

[shereads]

What's their beef? They want Bush to put more female hormones in Fidel's vegetable garden?

---dr.M.

It's not easy to understand this particular beef. I've asked my second-generation Cuban friends to explain it, often, and I still don't get it.

First-generation Cuban exiles, and fewer of their adult children, are adamantly opposed to lifting the trade embargo, but also admit that it hasn't harmed Fidel and makes life difficult for ordinary people. (Like Elian, the boy they fought to keep in the U.S. because if he was returned to his father in Cuba, he wouldn't have enough to eat. "Because of the embargo?" you ask. "No, because of the Communists," replies the CANF.) The complicated part is that the Cuban exile community send cash to their relatives in Cuba so they can buy the few things that are available despite the embargo, providing you have U.S. dollars to spend in the stores. They do this despite the fact that the embargo is intended, at least in part, to keep U.S. dollars out of Cuba.

Confused? Me too.

Recent Cuban exiles are opposed to Bush's proposal to restrict the amount of cash they can send to Cuba, and to limit their visits home to once every three years. More established Cuban exiles are in favor of the proposal, although they're continuing to send cash until the proposal passes Congress.

Recent Cuban exiles don't yet have a vote, so their opposition is meaningless. The CANF statement about Bush being untrustworthy has something to do with their being in favor of the restrictions, but not trusting Bush to follow through.

 

[shereads]

None of the above is as ironic as the Miami family of little Elian Gonzalez having taken him to Disney World to ride on the Pirates of the Caribean three weeks after he watched his mother drown.



The Elian mess revealed two points of view so opposed, they can never be resolved:

CANF: "That poor child's mother sacrificed her life to bring him here."

versus

Other: "That poor child's mother risked his life to come here. Also, no six year old should wake up each day to a wall mural of himself portrayed as Jesus being delivered to the U.S. in the arms of the Virgin Mary."

CANF: "Communist!"

Other: "No, art critic."

CANF: "Look how cruel Janet Reno is, staging a surprise raid on the child's home in the middle of the night when no one could have expected it."

Other: "Why is a photographer in the closet waiting for the surprise raid?"

"Hey, life under Batista was no picnic either. Didn't you people see Godfather III?"

~ little Elian Gonzalez, as portrayed on Saturday Night Live.