Tom DeLay's Support of Castro Despite "Cost of Our National Honor"

Man, I love Tom DeLay. And apparently the poster child for the modern ethically-challenged, radical-right, Christian theocrat loves his Cuban cigars.

But Did He Inhale?


Anti-Castro Majority Leader Tom DeLay enjoys a fine Cuban cigar
By KAREN TUMULTY
Wednesday, Apr. 27, 2005

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And sometimes, according to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a cigar is an economic prop to a brutal totalitarian regime. Arguing against loosening sanctions against Cuba last year, DeLay warned that Fidel Castro "will take the money. Every dime that finds its way into Cuba first finds its way into Fidel Castro's blood-thirsty hands.... American consumers will get their fine cigars and their cheap sugar, but at the cost of our national honor."

DeLay has long been one of Congress' most vocal critics of what he calls Castro's "thugocracy," which is why some sharp-eyed TIME readers were surprised last week to see a photo of the Majority Leader smoking one of Cuba's best—a Hoyo de Monterrey double corona, which generally costs about $25 when purchased overseas and is not available in this country. The cigar's label clearly states that it was made in "Habana." The photo was taken in Jerusalem on July 28, 2003, during a meeting between DeLay and the Republican Jewish Coalition at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

[snip]

DeLay's smoke may have run afoul of his principles, but it did not violate U.S. regulations at the time. However, it would now. Last September, the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control tightened its prohibitions against U.S. citizens importing or consuming Cuban cigars. Even Americans licensed to bring back up to $100 worth of Cuban goods are no longer allowed to include tobacco products in what they carry. The regulation also noted that Americans are barred not only from purchasing Cuban goods in foreign countries, but also from consuming them in those countries.

Ah, the freedoms we've lost in so little time. Hypocritically smoking a cuban cigar in a Jerusalem Hotel in 2003? Legal. And technically not unethical. Banning the rest of us from doing so since? Priceless.

Asked about the Majority Leader's consumption of a Cuban cigar, his spokesman Dan Allen replied there has been "no change in our Cuban policy."

For some there's integrity, for everyone else... there's the Republican Party.

I think this is worth bumping


Rant makes a good piont here. You should all respond especially if you are conservative.


I am but prefer to let other take a shot here.

SO, raping a 12 year old girl is illegal here, but if you do it in a country where it isn't illegal on national television you can't get in trouble? Strange.

Anyways, the republicans rose hell over Bill smoking cigars, legal ones, yet NOTHING from them on one of their own smoking illegal cigars. Hypocrits.