LATE TRAVEL NEWS – AT 10:55 P.M. ET:  Aren't you moved by Jimmy Carter's vacation choices?  The man has such exotic, unusual taste.  Just earlier this week he announced he was going to North Korea.  (We hear the Disney theme park is spectacular.)  Now he's announced another trip, which will make us envious:

(Reuters) - Former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn will visit Cuba next week to meet with President Raul Castro and discuss ways to improve U.S.-Cuba relations, a Carter spokeswoman said on Friday.

The visit, made at the invitation of the Cuban government, raised the possibility that Carter would get involved in the case of U.S. aid contractor Alan Gross, recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for providing illegal Internet access to Cuban groups.

The case has strained U.S.-Cuba relations after a brief warming under President Barack Obama.

Yes, we all noticed the warming.  Didn't you sense the warming from the Castro Brothers?

Carter, 86, was to arrive in Havana on Monday for a three-day trip "to learn about new economic policies and the upcoming (Communist) Party congress and to discuss ways to improve U.S.-Cuba relations," said a statement from Carter spokeswoman Deanna Congileo.

The upcoming Party congress?  Is that what Carter is interested in?  What does he expect from said congress, something new?  Maybe a new way to jail dissidents.  That must be it.

I guess that, like chicken soup, the trip can't hurt.  Carter is roundly ignored in Washington, which is all to the better.  But occasionally he might take a trip to, say, Australia, to thank the Aussies for all the friendship and help they've given us over the years.  He does know about Australia, doesn't he?  If you go west from Georgia...  Oh, never mind.

March 25,  2011