We come off on the better end in recent U.S./Mexico political travel exchange

It must be something in the air as we approach springtime, for the political people are travelling about on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border.

BACHMANN: Back from Latin America



Part of that is the fact that Mexico President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa  is coming to the United States this week. He’ll be in Washington on Thursday, and will have a face-to-face meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House.

NOT THAT THERE’S anything wrong with such a meeting – which will actually be the fifth between the two men during the past two years. Constant talk and negotiations is what is needed to ensure that our nation maintains stable relations with its neighbor to the south.

And as for those individuals who seriously believe we’d be better off without trying to maintain ties with Mexico, the only thing I can seriously say is that those people ARE the problem.

Which is why a part of me was somewhat pleased to learn of a congressional delegation (five members, to be exact) included a visit to Mexico on a trip the y made last week to Latin American nations.

CALDERON: His fifth meeting with Obama



What makes it particularly noteworthy is that the delegation included Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., one of the newly-elected politicos who got her position in the 2010 election cycle with strong support of the Tea Party types.

THOSE INDIVIDUALS ALL too often are among the ones who are the problem when it comes to trying to resolve conditions between the United States and Mexico because they would prefer to ignore reality when it comes to international ties.

Bachmann, who has shown more than a willingness in her rhetoric to pander to the people whose view of the North American continent is extremely closed, got to be on this trip because of her slot on the House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee.

So she got to meet with Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos, and also got high-level briefings on the current security status of both Colombia and Mexico – along with an update on what is being done with Mexico to try to calm the drug-related violence taking place near Ciudad Juarez AND to keep it from spreading north of the Rio Bravo del Norte/Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas.

I’d like to believe that giving Bachmann this kind of information would make her more knowledgeable – and capable of making more intelligent votes when issues related to Mexico, and Latin American nations in general, come up before the Congress.

OR WILL SHE be the equivalent of that kid in high school whose notebook wound up being filled with cutesy doodles while she ignored the lecture because the subject material was just, “Soooo boring!”

Not that the congresswoman is giving us a clue as to what she got from her trip to Latin America. The Politico newspaper only reported that she went, and that her staff wouldn’t even confirm her involvement in the trip until after it was over.

I’m sure some people are going to claim there’s a “national security” factor involved in withholding such information. But does Bachmann really think some Mexican drug cartel would have kidnapped her?

Somehow, I can’t help but be reminded of that old episode of “M*A*S*H” where actor Larry Linville’s “Frank Burns” character was used as a hostage by North Korean soldiers, only to be turned loose because they got sick and tired of listening to his incessant whining.

BOEHNER: What will he gain?



I WONDER WHAT perception Mexican officials got of the United States for having a member of Congress such as Bachmann. Or did she put a cork in the political partisanship and actually try to learn something?

Which means the more serious dialogue is likely to take place on Thursday, when Calderon meets not only with Obama but with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Maybe a little personal exposure with the Mexican president is what will help the esteemed “Mr. Speaker” tell some of the members of his caucus to “Put a cork in it!” if they start pushing for blatantly partisan and hostile measures in Congress aimed at this nation’s growing Latino population.

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