Replies

Apparently, representative Flake has several faces, some not very pleasant for the hard workingmen and women of United States. Flake has been at the forefront of those trying to subsidize the terrorist regimen of Fidel Castro with our taxpayers’ monies.

CONGRESSMAN FLAKE TO THE RESCUE OF CASTRO’S TYRANNICAL REGIMEN
12/17/2006

Flake: Our Very Own Neville Chamberlain Visits a State-Sponsor of Terror Country

“HMJ, Western Hemisphere Policy Watch” 12/15/2006

“It is because of people like Rep. Jeff Flake that we Republicans lost the majority in 2006; all about “me” and not about what is right, just. It is a pox that the conservative movement must work to undo.”

(From the Banks of the Potomac) We have yet to ascertain what fascinates Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake about Cuba and Fidel Castro. For years he has taken taxpayer-paid junkets to a state sponsor of terror - an ironic thing for a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative. This latest trip to Cuba clearly demonstrates Flake’s callous view of Cuban-Americans or U.S. policy in a post-09/11/01 world.

We single out Flake, and this applies equally to other Republicans, because they should know better. With the Democrats? Well, there are some good ones but not a majority in the U.S. Congress would ever support a hard line position against the Cuban Communist Party (CCP) and the Cuban regime generally.

A few months ago Flake (pictured at the left) and Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Bill Delahunt requested a GAO Audit of U.S./Cuba programs. So far, not too bad. We agree that these programs have to change, but that is just about the only thing we agree on. If you want to read about the GAO audit, we posted several pieces on it (here is one). It is what Flake is now doing with the results of the report that irks WHPW Editors.

Imagine for a moment if during World War II a U.S. Congressman had ordered a study of U.S. efforts to undermine the Nazi regime. Rather than fix problems in the program quietly, so the enemy did not figure it out, this Congressman puts a target on it by releasing a report about how effective that program happened to be. Then, to add some flavor, takes a copy of the report with him to Germany to share with the Nazi high command. Well, that is exactly what Flake and company have done with the Cuba programs.

What do these Congressmen seek to gain by sitting down with the leaders of the Cuban Communist Party (CCP)? The CCP has tortured and murdered American citizens, spies on the U.S. including implanting agents deep in our military (see this link as an example), and work to undermine U.S. interests throughout the Western Hemisphere in a variety of ways. And, this is not even discussing how the CCP treats its people and locks up dissenters in political jails. We doubt this crew will be thinking of any of this as it stays in the Hotel Nacional, sips mojitos with CCP officials, or begs to meet with Raul Castro.

For the first time in decades we have the CCP and the Cuban Armed Forces how we want them: really scared and vulnerable. We have them where we want them. We can and will force them to change before the Cuban people take matters into their own hands and change it for them (with sticks and stones if they have to). And, what do these Congressmen do? Step into this political mosh-pit for a voyeuristic junket, with spouses, to the Cuban gulag! Shame on them.

Early reports from our sources inside-the-beltway indicate that the focus of this trip is designed to reassure the CCP, the FAR, and others in the regime that there are people in the USG that they can work with, to ignore the Cuban-Americans in Miami or the hardliners in Washington. The Democratic Congress and the few Republicans that support them will see to it that policy changes, that the CCP gets to stay in power, and that there will be no negative repercussions for decades of hard line rule. Sad, so sad.

On a bright note, Neville Chamberlain went down in history books as an appeaser and a coward. The cooler and patriotic forces in England prevailed and she was victorious. Freedom seekers always beat out cowards. We know that should be the case here as well. It is because of people like Rep. Jeff Flake that we Republicans lost the majority in 2006; all about “me” and not about what is right, just. It is a pox that the conservative movement must work to undo.

We hope that the Bush Administration’s foreign policy team on this matter will work smart to counteract this propaganda trip. We have the political upper hand. Let’s use it and not squander the political goodwill that we have created with millions of Cubans in Cuba that do not support that system.

Posted by From the Banks of the Potomac ...