Joe Garcia reaping hysteria he helped cultivate

[Mika]

Garcia reaping hysteria he helped cultivate
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/ana_menendez/story/494023.html

Fidel Castro is out of power and brother Raúl is preoccupied with Cuba's delicate transition, but in Miami, island politics can still resonate as if it were 1992.

Take last week's news that a congressman who has met with Fidel would attend a fundraiser for Democratic candidate Joe Garcia.

The announcement, a boring political footnote anywhere else, was greeted here with the hysteria, glee and indignation that is the mark of manufactured scandal.

SOUND-BITE SCANDAL

Charles Rangel, the Democrat from New York, has traveled to Cuba as Fidel's guest and repeatedly called for an end to the embargo. Not surprisingly, he's earned the hatred of many conservative exiles.

By Thursday, Rangel's support for Garcia had become a minor, easy-to-digest controversy.

Some of Garcia's fellow graduates from Belen Jesuit Preparatory School asked him to cancel the fundraiser. The hosts on Spanish-language stations amused themselves by rhyming Rangel with Fidel.

And Garcia's opponent Mario Diaz-Balart, invoking his own inner poet, contributed the catchy school-yard taunt: ``Left-wing birds of a feather tax and spend together.''

By contrast, the presence of incumbent U.S. representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart at a rally attended by militant Luis Posada-Carriles Sunday prompted just a mildly worded letter to the editor.

The lesson: If you're going to hang out with controversial people, make sure their anti-Castro credentials are solid.

Friday, a frustrated Garcia called a news conference.

''I'm not going to be afraid of meeting with Charlie Rangel,'' he told me after.

I agree with Garcia and share many of his political values. But in many ways, he's caught in a culture of intimidation that he helped nurture.

In 1992, The Miami Herald published an editorial that argued against tightening the U.S. embargo against Cuba.

1992 CANF CAMPAIGN

The tone was respectful, the arguments solid. But The Cuban American National Foundation, then led by Jorge Mas Canosa, immediately went on the offensive. Mas Canosa, who died in 1997, told Spanish-language radio listeners that The Herald manipulated information ``just like Granma.''

Within weeks, billboards and bumper stickers went up around the city: ``I don't believe The Herald.''

The campaign -- which generated vandalism and death threats that CANF disavowed -- lasted for months. It was run by an ambitious 28-year-old at the foundation named Joe Garcia.

Today Garcia stands by his youthful adventure, saying he didn't think The Herald had treated the community fairly at the time. ''I wasn't an advocate to anything but one issue,'' he said. ``My job then was to represent the Cuban American community.''

At 44, Garcia remains the ambitious in-your-face fighter, the kind of guy who prefers an argumentative dinner guest to a sweet, friendly one.

POLITICS AS USUAL

Last year, supporters of a Democratic candidate on Miami Beach attacked a Republican rival for working for a company that once did business in Cuba.

It was the kind of red-baiting that Democrats ought to avoid. But Garcia, the local party chief, refused to condemn anyone.

''This is part of politics in South Florida,'' he told me at the time.

Friday, Garcia went after the GOP with the same tactics, accusing his opponents of hypocrisy for taking money from backers who do business with Cuba.

It's part of the way politics is waged here. And Garcia is a veteran.

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[Judi Lynn]

1. This is going to be interesting. Thanks, Mika. Garcia's only value is that he could put a "D" in

office, with any luck, to replace that absolutely monster, Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

Garcia's destructive, hateful, and not really so democratic, himself, but at least he's not Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

[Mika]

2. I don't trust him at all. Its a loaded deck of cards.

Several years ago (pre 9/11) I participated in a local panel discussion for local WLRN public radio, and Mr Garcia was one of the anti normalization w/ Cuba panelists. A couple of us on the panel had Joe pinned down with his own twisted lies and contradictions. Of course the panel was loaded down with anti Castro extremists and "moderates" who all mewled the same crap - Cuba has bioweapons & exports terrorism, the 13 de Marzo hijacking, the BttR shootdown, Castro is on Forbes richest list, Cubans are under constant watch by Castro's armed thugs on every corner, etc, etc., but Joe was the most willing to twist and lie and constantly change the goal line for any aspect of the discussion. Much like the Cubaphobes here, Joe called me 'one of the Fidelistas on the panel', on stage, for my saying that Cubans on Cuba should design their own future because they have shown great ability to do a good job at it. The host of the discussion, WLRN's Joe Cooper, also thanked the 'pro Castro' segment of the panel as he pointed to my side of the stage. After the show I told the host that I will hold him and the station responsible for any threats or any actions taken against me or my business for his mischaracterization of me and my position on the issues - because being labeled as 'pro Castro' in Miami is tantamount to having a target painted on one's back, home, and business.

Joe is as moderate as ..


And is as much a Dem as ..


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