Or, at least, they think they did:
The White House on Thursday hit back against Florida Senator Marco Rubio's harsh attacks on President Barack Obama's plans to normalize relations with Cuba, saying he should back the deal because he supported the confirmation of an ambassador to China earlier this year.
"One of the leading proponents of this strategy of shutting off funding for the construction of this embassy and appointing an ambassador to Cuba is Senator Rubio, of course," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at a daily news briefing....
What does Senator Rubio voting for the confirmation of former Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) as ambassador to Red China have to do with blasting O's sellout to the Castro brothers? Good question, although I do see what they were trying to go for:
Citing Rubio's statements from the confirmation hearing of former Democrat Senator Max Baucus as Beijing ambassador in January, Earnest hinted that those comments conflicted with his statements on Wednesday about Havana.
China has long been under attack for its human-rights abuses. Baucus was confirmed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Rubio is a member.
"In thinking about this," Earnest continued, "it occurs to me that it seems odd Senator Rubio would be reluctant and, in fact, actively seeking to block the appointment of an ambassador to Cuba when earlier this year he voted to confirm the ambassador to China that the president nominated."...
"The other thing I noticed that, in the context of those hearings, Senator Rubio said something that this administration wholeheartedly agrees with," Earnest said. "Let me read it to you."...
He then read Rubio's comment from the January 28 hearing:
"I think you'll find broad consensus on this committee and I hope in the administration, that our embassy should be viewed as an ally of those within Chinese society that are looking to express their fundamental rights to speak out and to worship freely.
"We think the exact same thing can be said of the new embassy in Cuba," Earnest said.
Ha ha, White House caught Rubio in a "gotcha!". But not much of one. The gaping difference between the two is that relations with Red China have been normalized for over forty years. I'm sure Senator Rubio feels the same way about the ChiComms as he does the Castro brothers, but there's no way at present that diplomatic relations with Beijing are going to be severed, so he was making the best of an unsavory situation. But we also have to remember that the primary justification for President Nixon's opening to the PRC was that it is a major global power, and it was silly to simply pretend that it didn't exist. I'll leave it to y'all to decide whether that was sufficient reason to recognize the ChiComms, but it's now a fait accompli.
Communist Cuba, by stark contrast, is not a global power, has nothing we want or need, but still abuses its own people as much or more than the ChiComms do. So while it is at least arguable that diplomatic relations with the PRC are in our national interest, no such argument can be made with regard to the Castro regime.
In short, we did not and do not have to recognize the Castro brothers; it is an ideological choice that Barack Obama is making, and thus fair game for Senator Rubio to rip from rectum to belly button.
I do find it interesting that the White House felt the need to push back against Rubio's criticism, though. Strictly speaking, O can open diplomatic relations with any government he wants, and we know that he's been liberated to do whatever he wants, law and the Constitution be damned. So why would it matter to The One if a freshman Republican senator had a problem with his Cuba sellout? It's either perceived damage control, or the dictator's narcissism has reached even more stratospheric heights.
And perhaps its simply that he can't get that fine Cuban choom fast enough.
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