Missouri Congressman, member of the Congressional Black Caucus and former Kansas City mayor Emanuel Cleaver certainly gave a rousing speech at the Democrat National Convention Wednesday night.

A Methodist pastor, Rev. Cleaver, in his convention speech, showed the same kind of fire he exhibited for years preaching from the pulpit.

When I saw the kind of energy Rev. Cleaver brought to his convention speech, I wondered if perhaps he was so fired up because he'd heard that the Castro brothers were in the audience. Rev. Cleaver, you see, is a big, big fan of the Castro brothers.

But it's not San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the convention's keynote speaker, and his twin brother Joaquin (also a Texas Democrat politician) who rate so highly with Rev. Cleaver. Even though they had both appeared on stage the night before, and were shown in the audience Wednesday night, it's not the San Antonio Castro brothers of whom Cleaver is so very enamored. Instead, it's the Havana Castro brothers, Fidel Castro and his brother Raul.

You see, in April of 2009 Cleaver led the Congressional Black Caucus on a junket to Uncle Fidel's Island Paradise, and upon returning they waxed ecstatic about how the "down-to-earth" Castros had welcomed them into their "modest" homes and served them food and drink. And Cleaver has continued to sing the praises of his friend "El Presidente".

Here's Rush Limbaugh's video montage with some soundbites from CBC members, including former Black Panther, Rep. Bobby Rush gushing over how Fidel treated him "like an old friend" and admiring him as "the ultimate survivor":

And here you can watch Rev. Cleaver describe (rather tediously!) his meeting with Raul Castro:

Aside from how unseemly it might be for U.S. Congressmen to be cozying up to murderous Communist dictators -- and, let's face it, is it any worse than President Obama getting all buddy-buddy with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez? -- there's an irony in the fact that Cleaver, who sees racism where there is none (he claimed to have been spit on and subjected to racial epithets at a Tea Party rally) managed to ignore the blatant racism against Black Cubans practiced by his Cuban hosts. The rest of the Congressional Black Caucus turned a blind eye to institutionalized racism by the Castro regime as well. They were all too busy trying to cut cell-phone deals and otherwise do business with the Castros.

I wonder how big a letdown it was for Rev. Cleaver to learn that the Castro brothers everyone at the convention was talking about were not his pals Fidel and Raul, but merely the young Julian Castro and his brother Joaquin!

Stu Tarlowe lives in the Kansas City area and writes on a variety of subjects, including over three dozen pieces for American Thinker.