The Salamander Wants to Bomb Cuba

Newt Gingrich prepared to bomb Cuba (TheAustralian.com)

* From: AFP
* January 27, 2012 12:00AM

NEWT Gingrich was ahead in the rhetorical war among Republican presidential hopefuls on who could be toughest on Cuba's communist regime, suggesting yesterday that he would bomb the island if there were a popular uprising.

The former house speaker and his top rival, ex-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, were engaged in heated campaigning in Florida days before Wednesday's Republican primary. And both were desperately wooing the state's large Cuban-American community, nearly a million strong.

Mr Gingrich was asked to explain comments that if elected, he would "not tolerate four more years of a Cuban dictatorship".

If the US planes bombed Libya, should they do the same with Cuba?

"If there was a genuine, legitimate uprising, we would, of course, be on the side of the people," Mr Gingrich told Spanish-language network Univision.

"In that sense, I don't see why Cuba should be sacrosanct, and we should say, 'Oh, don't do anything to hurt' - you know, we're very prepared to back people in Libya. We may end up backing people in Syria. But now Cuba? Hands off Cuba. That's baloney.
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"People of Cuba deserve freedom."

The audience at the Miami venue where Univision held the interview broke into applause.

Mr Romney said if he were president, he would punish foreign companies doing business in Cuba.

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro dismissed the tough talk. "The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalised and expansive empire is . . . the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been heard," he wrote in Cuban media yesterday.

Mr Gingrich also defended himself against accusations of being a hypocrite for criticising then president Bill Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Mr Gingrich spoke out against Mr Clinton at the same time he, as house speaker, was cheating on his wife. He said he wasn't criticising Mr Clinton's relationship with Ms Lewinsky but Mr Clinton's response to it.

"I have never lied under oath, I have never committed perjury, I have never committed a felony," Mr Gingrich said.

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JG: What a f***ing idiot!