Cuba and Republicans

Cuba makes such strange politics. A group of congressional Republicans is trying very hard to put more restrictions on Americans' liberty and trade. According to the GOP platform:

In a free society, the primary role of government is to protect the God-given, inalienable, inherent rights of its citizens, including the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

But if you want to engage with Cuba, forget all that liberty and pursuit stuff.

Next, we have Kansas, where the Republican governor is facing criticism from everyone because of his incompetent budgeting. Both Republican senators from Kansas favor ending the embargo, and the budget crisis is making them even more vocal. One even already introduced a bill to end the embargo! That puts them squarely with President Obama and squarely against Republican presidential candidates (according to the Heritage Foundation, Senators Roberts and Moran are just above average in terms of how conservative they are).

I'll be curious to see how this plays out in the Republican primaries. Marco Rubio in particular will want to frame Cuba policy as a sign of Obama's weakness, yet this will be undercut by plenty of fellow Republicans.