The bottom line was that Sheila had practically no business in the matter but stuck herself in the middle of it at every opportunity. It's unusual that a Texas congresswoman would undertake so much effort to stick herself in the middle of a dispute taking place in South Florida as if she knew the issue better than the local reps there such as, say, Lincoln Diaz-Balart.
I also don't believe she cared one bit about the father's rights. For Sheila it was all another publicity stunt. As a constituent I've seen it all too often from her - she's madly in love with the camera and will claw her way to one at every chance. But if some problem in the district doesn't get her publicity she ignores it. I tend to think of her as Mickey Leland without tact, and that's not saying, IMHO, that he had much to begin with.
I interviewed Leland once when he called a state republican leader a "racist bastard" and "you can quote me on that." So we did.
But I kind of admired him in a way. You obviously know Sheila better than I do, but I probably know the South Florida Cubans and how they operate better than you. I also know a fair amount about the Congressional Black Caucus from a, shall we say, non-traditional perspective. I know Sheila has to play it careful when it came to Bush since he was the governor and all, but I still believe she has a heart and a brain, (despite the way Rush handles her on his show) which is more than can be said for any of the aforementioned members of Congress. In fact, it is rare among congressional members to begin with. I could be wrong. But if I had to purge people from Congress, Sheila would not be first on my list, as already noted. Thanks for not flaming me.