Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the high-energy, high-profile congresswoman from South Florida, has often been compared–and contrasted–with rookie Sen. Marco Rubio, the charismatic South Floridian who, as a candidate, dispatched Charlie Crist to Morgan & Morgan.
Both are young, articulate and ambitious–with huge up-sides within their respective parties. Sen. Rubio is mentioned as possible Republican presidential-ticket material next year. U.S. Rep. Wasserman Schultz is already chairing the Democratic National Committee.
The contrast, however, goes beyond simple Democratic-Republican labels. They’re practically polar opposites on the political spectrum. Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles, is a Tea Party favorite, if not poster boy. New York native Wasserman Schultz is a classic, Jewish liberal.
With one glaring incongruity. They both have the same position on Cuba.
Rubio sees Cuban-American politics through the hard-line exile lens. It’s an issue that is still personal. Living the American Dream precludes making up with a dictator. Etc. What’s best for America–from geopolitics to trade to humane considerations–and the Cuban people is less important than an ongoing vendetta agenda. It is what it is.
What it is for Wasserman Schultz is pure, self-aggrandizing politics. Her district 20 encompasses parts of Miami-Dade and Broward counties. She’s known as a staunch defender of that counterproductive Cold War relic–the economic embargo against Cuba. Sanctions are sacrosanct. She takes money from the U.S. Cuba Democracy PAC and helped found the Cuba Democracy Caucus, a pro-embargo group of legislators. She’s pals with GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the influential, pro-embargo harridan from South Florida.
She makes no apologies for being out of step with the Democratic Party, her president, this Hemisphere, most Floridians, a majority of Cuban-Americans and the rest of the world. She knows what plays well in her district and panders accordingly, regardless of the implications for Florida and the United States.
“We should not be opening up our markets and our travel before the Castro regime brings true reform to the Cuban people,” she underscored recently.
Sen. Rubio, singing from the same hymnal, wouldn’t have changed a word.
And just for the sake of raw irony, this just in. Three U.S. Navy ships have been welcomed in Nang, Vietnam for joint training. It’s part of routine American-Vietnamese exchanges. Routine exchanges with a country where we went to war and lost more than 50,000 GIs.
But personal back stories haven’t resulted in ultimate leverage over U.S. foreign policy. We now have normalized diplomatic and economic relations with Vietnam.
Meanwhile, the South Florida de facto veto over ending the embargo and opening up travel for all Americans is still in force. And Wasserman Schultz, a clout-carrying Florida politician, remains a comrade in arms with the likes of Ros-Lehtinen, representing the sovereign state of Little Havana–to the detriment of everybody else.