One thing I like about President Bush is that he's not afraid to try to clean up the garbage America has left lying around the world for far too long.
WASHINGTON — Eager to please a key Florida constituency, President Bush directed his secretary of state and his Cuban-born housing secretary Friday to recommend ways to achieve a transition to democracy in Cuba after 44 years under Fidel Castro (search).Yeah yeah, "eager to please a key Florida constituency" and such, but still -- action is action. I approved of Clinton's bombing of al Qaeda in the 90s, even though he only did it to distract us from Monica and I knew it would be ineffectual.
Secretary of State Colin Powell and Housing Secretary Mel Martinez (search) will chair a panel that will "plan for the happy day when Castro's regime is no more and democracy comes to the island," Bush said during a Rose Garden ceremony."The transition to freedom will present many challenges to the Cuban people and to America, and we will be prepared," the president said.
Bush also said the United States would step up enforcement of existing restrictions against the communist regime, such as a ban on tourism by Americans, and crack down on the trafficking of women and children in Cuba. The United States also will launch a public outreach campaign to identify "the many routes to safe and legal entry" for Cubans who try to flee their homeland, he said.
The last man to speak this forthrightly about the expansion of freedom was that senile old codger who by sheer luck brought down the Soviet Union, Ronald W. Reagan.
Bush might not be ideal, but he's a damn sight better than anyone the Democrats have to offer us, and head and shoulders above McCain and the other GOP contenders he had to fend off in 2000. He's a walking demonstration of the importance of personal character in a high official. It's no wonder the Clintonistas and power-lusters of the Left can't stand him.
"It's no wonder the Clintonistas and power-lusters of the Left can't stand him."
They LOATHE him. It's amazing to watch.
"Critics are often men who have failed." Fulton J. Sheen.