The blogging darling of leftist America, Markos Moulitsas, has taken it upon himself to impugn his fellow Democrat, Senator Robert Menendez, for taking a stand in favor of the embargo and using his position of authority to defend it. Not surprisingly, darling Moulitsas makes incorrect assertions and has a severe case of amnesia.

The Cuban embargo is not long for this world, and will likely be phased out over the next few years as support dwindles to a handful of dead-enders.

The embargo may disappear soon, but only if President Barack Hussein Obama breaks a campaign promise that he made to Cuban-Americans not once but several times including at a luncheon where he was hosted by the once powerful Cuban American National Foundation to commemorate Cuban independence day.  Of course it wouldn't be the first campaign promise that Obama breaks.  We know what happened to his promise to participate in the federal campaign funding program. We know what happened to his "no lobbyists in my administration" promise.  And we see what's happening with his no earmarks promise.  It's unfortunate that our president has a problem with keeping his promises.  

Indeed, much of the impetus for change in the embargo won't just come from Obama and other anti-embargo Democrats, but by pro-trade Republicans (especially in farm states) who want to see the island opened up to greater trade and investment. (Remember, the influential foreign policy voice and Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar has already publicly called for a reevaluation of Cuba policy.)

Darling Moulitsas is mistaken is about the dwindling support for the embargo.  Regardless of the number of surveys taken by Florida International University that purport to the contrary, the Cuban people have voted overwhelmingly for representatives that maintain the hardest line against the castro regime both in South Florida and New Jersey.  And while it's true that a handful of Republican lawmakers from farm states have been agitating to lift the embargo it has more to do with ensuring cash flow to their farmer constituents, who never saw a subsidy they didn't like, than in wanting to secure liberty for the Cuban people.  And I believe the day the United States begins to sell agricultural products to Cuba on credit, we will have created another federal farm subsidy because the fact is that the castro regime has neither the ability nor the desire to pay back its creditors. Of course darling Moulitsas doesn't have a problem giving away taxpayer money by the boatload, especially if its to a totalitarian dictatorship and he can stick it in the eye of those right wing Republican Cuban-Americans that he likes to call a mafia.

This isn't a partisan issue. The fault line is between a bipartisan handful of (mostly) Cuban-Americans too invested in a failed policy to change course, and pretty much everyone else. It's too bad seeing Menendez associating with the dead-enders, when he could be a valuable voice in crafting our post-embargo approach to Cuba.

He's right that this isn't a partisan issue.  But where darling Moulitsas is dead wrong is when he characterizes the embargo as failed policy.  By everyone's account, including the castro regime's the embargo has denied tyrant in Havana billions of dollars of cash that he would have otherwise had.  Why doesn't darling Moulitsas talk about the failed policy of dialogue and engagement that has been attempted by the European Union for the past 15 years?  Of course he doesn't want to see that side of the story because it gets in the way of his ability to demonize people who understand exactly what people like Markos Moulitsas are: useful idiots.

In the next few days Pajamas Media will be publishing a column I have written.  In it I explain how President Obama could change the world's opinion of Cuba if he only wanted to.  Unfortunately, people like darling Moulitsas don't want to see our president use his moral authority to denounce wrongdoing by left wing dictatorships.  

Bob Menendez is using the only leverage he has to try to derail one of thousands of provisions in this omnibus spending bill that should be debated and examined but that are being snuck through like Sally through the alley.  Kudos to Bob Menendez for holding his ground.  I'm sure darling Moulitsas would feel differently if he found his party in a position of absolute minority and someone had the balls to defend one of the causes close to his heart.