19 July 1996
The Washington Times

Every Which Way On Cuba

Granted, the presidential election season is upon us. And granted, standing firmly on both sides of every important issue while speaking forcefully from both sides of his mouth is Bill Clinton's habit even when the presidential election season is not upon us. But his last-minute waiver of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act's provision granting U.S. citizens the right to sue foreign companies profiting from expropriated U.S. property in Cuba was still a noteworthy exercise in Clintonian doublethink.

Now, Mr. Clinton didn't have to sign the bill into law. Indeed, he was hardly expected to sign the bill when it was first proposed by Sen. Jesse Helms and Rep. Dan Burton. For one thing, Mr. Clinton and his crew, proud members of the generation that had stars in its eyes about Fidel Castro's workers' paradise and other communist dictatorships, haven't exactly taken a tough stance against Mr. Castro since coming to Washington. (Indeed, the Clinton administration's softening of our three-decades-old hard line against Mr. Castro might be said to be one of the bill's reasons for being.) For another, our European allies - whose business dealings in Cuba would be the chief target of the suits - had ten hissy fits about the bill. And Mr. Clinton's preferred method of dealing with such tantrums seems to be to back down precipitously.

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