Menendez (D): "Offensive", and "Deeply Undemocratic" Legislation

Well, what do ya know. Even the Democrats in Congress can read. And now that they're starting to read some of the legislation before voting on it, they don't like a lot of what they are seeing. More at link.

Menendez knew that his hard-line approach to Cuba was a minority view within his party, and that it was at odds with Obama's approach. But he did not expect to discover a significant policy change embedded in the text on an appropriations bill. His policy aides came across the language when the legislation was posted on a congressional Web site.

"The process by which these changes have been forced upon this body is so deeply offensive to me, and so deeply undemocratic, that it puts the omnibus appropriations package in jeopardy, in spite of all the other tremendously important funding that this bill would provide," the enraged son of Cuban immigrants said last week on the Senate floor. Menendez even slapped a hold on a pair of Obama nominees to draw attention to the issue.

... Democratic lawmakers are starting to read the fine print of the bills they will wrestle with in the coming weeks and months, and not always liking what they see.

Comments

[mojo]

Don't like that taste of snake oil, eh boys?

[HMS Nerd]

"What's the difference with Cuba?" is what Menendez asked in the Washington Post, and that may be the salient issue here. Is it the geographic proximity? The significance of that country's overt sovietness for so long, after previously being a vacation destination? The policy on trade really is rooted in the personal experiences of Cuban immigrants, like Menendez's parents so to a great extent it's more of a domestic question than Iran is. Though, the difference that easing trade restrictions would have on the lives of the Cuban people is hard to ignore - http://www.newsy.com/videos/rethinking_u_s_cuba_trade/

[David]

*heh* Old proverb:

"To get a donkey's attention, sometimes you have to whack it on the head."

This just shows it does matter what KIND of stick you hit an ass upside the head with.