White House wants condemnation of Blanco?? (Castro meeting)

La. GOP attacks Blanco for Castro talks
http://2theadvocate.com/stories/031305/new_gop001.shtml

Others defend governor, call meeting nonpolitical, cite lack of objection from U.S. officials

By MARSHA SHULER
mshuler@theadvocate.com
Capitol news bureau

The Bush White House has called upon the state Republican Party to condemn Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco's meeting with Cuban President Fidel Castro, party chairman Roger Villere said Saturday. Villere said the party is more than willing to oblige as he and others criticized Blanco for meeting with the Communist leader during a trade mission to Cuba last week.




"The State Department and the White House have requested we take a position," Villere said. "That was an insult to our foreign policy and to the president of the United States.

snip

Meanwhile, a Republican legislator who was among those dining with Castro said he doubts Villere's assertion of White House involvement in a move to rebuke Blanco for meeting with Castro.

"I would find that hard to believe," said state Sen. Robert Barham, R-Oak Ridge, a farmer and Bush supporter who also met with Castro. "If I had received any indication they didn't want me to go for some reason, I wouldn't have."

more at site above

That's the reason why we should be angry," Arcement said. He said Blanco declined meetings with Bush on at least two occasions, including when the president was LSU's commencement speaker. :D

"She did it for the equivalent of 30 pieces of silver," a woman GOP committee member shouted.

Nemo Viso of Baton Rouge, a Cuban-American activist whose grandfather was a political prisoner, encouraged party action. He said Blanco had turned "a deaf ear" to Cuban dissidents. "She listened to Castro."

Viso said Cuban Americans warned Blanco that Castro was "going to use her like a puppet. It's quite a sad event for her to be used for that type of exploitation."

.....like they aren't doing the very same thing with our natual gas and oil? :grr: