Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist recently made the media rounds hawking The Party’s Over: How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat, the book he co-wrote with (Fox News analyst) Ellis Henican. The only thing approaching news-worthiness was Crist telling HBO’s Bill Maher that leaders should “stand up to” the usual South Florida suspects and end the embargo against Cuba. And that no state, of course, would benefit more than Florida.
“…The reality is that no state’s economy is hurt more by America’s Cuba policies than Florida,” underscored Crist, who didn’t quite see it this way when he was the Republican governor. “Changing these policies to allow Florida’s farmers, manufacturers and construction industry to sell goods and services in Cuba would boost Florida’s economy and help businesses create more jobs in our state.”
Obviously.
Unsurprisingly, Crist’s opponent, incumbent Gov. Rick Scott, can’t allow himself to view the embargo in the same “jobs, jobs, jobs” context he sees virtually every other campaign issue. The erstwhile political outsider now seems to view the counterproductive Cold War relic through the same Cuban-American, vendetta prism as exile-community hardliners. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Rick Scott: the four amigos.
“The suggestion that Cuban Americans need to be ‘stood up to’ is insulting,” said Scott. Then he sang from the exile-community hymnal. “The importance of maintaining the embargo is that it stands for the Cuban people’s right to be free.”
Just so we have this right. “Let’s get to work” doesn’t trump partisan political expedience on an issue that disadvantages this country, this state and this port city.