Of One Mind
National security in the backseat.

By Jim Boulet Jr., executive director, English First.
June 22, 2001 9:00 a.m.

harlie Black is getting lots of bad press for Karl Rove's Vieques decision. What folks don't realize is that, had Puerto Rico's Statehood party won the governor's race in 2000, some other famous Republican consultant would have pressed Rove for exactly the same decision and probably obtained it.

There are three parties in Puerto Rico: the New Progressive party, which supports statehood for Puerto Rico; the Popular Democratic party, which supports continuation of the island's current commonwealth status; and the Independence party, whose name should be self-explanatory.

The leaders of each of these parties have each been busily pouring gasoline on the fire of the Vieques issue. It was during the tenure of Statehood party Governor Pedro "Not One More Bomb" Rossello that the drive to expel the Navy from Vieques began in earnest. It was only when the Statehooders realized that "Yankee go home" made a poor motto for a prospective 51st state that they agreed to a compromise with Bill Clinton on the Vieques issue.

Official Washington sees Puerto Rico's Statehood party as identified with the Republican party, while the Commonwealth party is seen as part of the Democratic party. Both the Statehood and Commonwealth parties play the Republican/Democrat political game when visiting the mainland, but both parties think pretty much the same way, except when it comes to the issue of the island's future status.

For too many Puerto Rico politicians in both the Statehood and the Commonwealth parties, the U.S. treasury is a major industry and the Puerto Rico treasury is a piggy bank best used to reward friends and punish enemies.

This means that all of Puerto Rico's politicians are intensely focused on manipulating the levers of American politics for the benefit of Puerto Rico, while there is no real constituency opposing them.

In this way, Puerto Rico can be compared to the Japan Inc. that Michael Crichton wrote about in his novel, Rising Sun:

They own the government. You know what they spend in Washington every year? Four hundred million…dollars a year. …Now you tell me. Would they spend all that money, year after year, if it wasn't paying off for them?

That same question could be asked of Puerto Rico, even though the sums involved are far lower. Puerto Rico invested close to $4 million in 2000 election contests and nearly $3 million in 1996. The island's government spends an average of $4 million per year for lobbying. (For more detail, see "Stand Firm on Vieques").

This kind of spending will buy anyone a respectful hearing in Washington. In fact, Puerto Rico lobbying contracts undoubtedly helped keep some political consulting/lobbying shops open during the lean years of 1997-98.

I'm told Charlie Black worked hard against statehood for Puerto Rico during that time. (He and I have never met.) But there were other Republicans working for statehood — folks who would have no trouble getting a meeting with Karl Rove had the Statehooders retained power in the last election.

The curious thing about Puerto Rico's political influence is how it is able to portray support for Puerto Rican issues as a means of winning the Hispanic vote. For the party decried as a tool of business interests, the GOP does not seem to understand what the business community already knows: Hispanics do not all think the same way.

The most recent proof of this basic fact appeared in the story, "Financial Services Industry Fails to Reach Many Hispanics," which ran in the June 20th New York Times business section: "Hispanics are, after all, a diverse group: a pitch that appeals to Mexicans, the largest subgroup, could fall flat with Cuban immigrants."

The Mexican-American in Laredo and the Cuban-American in Miami are not losing sleep over Puerto Rico's political status or continued Navy training on Vieques. The people who are losing sleep over the Vieques issue are America's military leaders, who know they are sending undertrained people into harm's way in distant foreign lands, and America's men and women in uniform who are risking their lives every day.

Were the Republicans (or the Democrats) to stand up for ensuring America's national security, they would earn and deserve the votes of Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike.