Party Chair on Miami Tour

U.S. Rep. Tom Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, was in town Monday to plug Republicans seeking reelection to Congress. His VIP escorts: U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart. Reynolds talked to reporters at the Biltmore Hotel. I've included a photo. When the conversation touched on Cuba, as it usually does in Miami, Reynolds said he had a voting record on Cuba “that I think Lincoln would be proud of.” Lincoln’s response: “O yeah.” Reynolds said South Florida’s Republican  congressional reps have the power to “force this issue to move forward.” South Florida will find out soon enough. This week, Cuban American leaders are scheduled to seek changes to Cuban migration policy from the Bush administration.

Comments

[Larry Grieshop]

It is time to end all trade and travel restrictions on Cuba. I have never seen examples of where they have worked. I have seen first hand the benefits of the lifting of such restrictions. I was in the U.S.S.R. twice in 1970 to sell and then install sophisticated machine tools. The 1st was a 6 weeks trip to Moscow to participate in an exposition to sell American machine tools. The crowds were so eager to see western things and people that barricades had to be built to keep us from being trampled. They hungered to see visions that they had been denied. The second trip was also 6 weeks to Ryazan Russia to install the machines we had sold to the Russians and teach them how to run them and maintain them. We were the only foreigners in a city of about 100,000, and every night when we went to a local resturant to eat the locals would form a single file procession past our tables just to see what we looked like. They just had a curious hunger to see something new that had never been possible before. Open all the doors to Cuba and let the fresh, clean breeze blow in to freshen the climate there.