Op-Ed: Republicans stand with the Cuban people in their struggle for freedom Photo courtesy of Joshua Sotomayor-Einstein. That a totalitarian socialist dictatorship has destroyed Cuba and the lives of so many men, women, and children, should not be a partisan issue but to Democrat U.S. Senator Bob Menendez it is. In fact, in a statement Menendez went out of his away to attack the NJ GOP Gubernatorial candidate, Jack Ciattarelli, for having the audacity to attend the Cuban freedom rally in North Bergen. If Menendez thinks Ciattarelli is politicizing the Cuban freedom movement by merely being present at a rally, then what of Menendez’s political underlings in the Hudson County Democrat Organization that spoke at that very same rally?