Word: flaking
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...politics, Rove promised, but the Congressmen didn't buy it. The Cuban-American lobby is key to Bush's hope of winning Florida in 2004, not to mention his brother's tough re-election bid in November to be the state's Governor. Says anti-embargo Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona: "Everyone recognizes there is a political element to this...
When U.S. Congressman Jeff Flake visited Havana recently, promoting legislation to let Americans travel freely to Cuba, Fidel Castro had his top aides meet with Flake to ask whether the measure could really pass. "Yes," Flake said, "and tell Castro that if he doesn't behave, we're going to bring down the whole darn embargo...
...expects Castro to significantly soften his autocratic rule. But his new posture could complicate things for George W. Bush. Like Flake, most congressional Representatives now believe U.S. engagement is the best way to foster democracy in Cuba. But Bush and his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, are politically beholden to such figures as Armando Perez Roura, the patriarch of Miami's rabidly anti-Castro Radio Mambi. Perez, 74, still mobilizes more of Florida's half a million Cuban votes than any other exile leader. Those votes went to Bush I and later to Bush II, whose controversial, narrow victory owed...
...election bid, President Bush is expected to announce even tighter sanctions against Cuba, including a crackdown on nearly 100,000 Americans who illegally go to Cuba each year. Any U.S. tourism and trade with Cuba, insists White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, "benefits only the repressive regime in Cuba." But Flake's amendment to allow U.S. travel to Cuba and a similar Senate measure are expected to pass this summer, both with ample G.O.P. backing...
That may well spawn other reforms, such as allowing Cuba access to U.S. credit to buy American food and medicine. "U.S. business, tourism and farm-state politics are overtaking Miami politics on this issue," says Flake, an Arizona Republican. Florida political analysts say the Bushes want to maintain a hard line, at least until the gubernatorial election in November. But with even Fidel turning against the embargo, the Bush brothers may have less time than they thought. --With reporting by Dolly Mascarenas/Havana