Doug Farrar is the editor of Shutdown Corner, Yahoo! Sports’ NFL blog.

One senator’s joke about battling Cuban communism with American college kids on Spring Break led to an outraged verbal smackdown from another senator Thursday.

The setting was Sen. John Kerry‘s confirmation hearing as President Obama‘s nominee to be Secretary of State.

The joker was Sen. Jeff Flake, the newly elected Republican from Arizona.

“Let me just mention one item briefly and then ask a few questions. With regard to Cuba, I’ve felt, perhaps differently than some of my colleagues on this panel, that the best way to foster change and progress toward democracy is to allow travel, free travel of Americans, to let them go as they wish. I don’t think that that’s a weakness or any capitulation at all. I think it’s a – it’s a way to show strength. In fact, I’ve often felt that if we want a real get-tough policy with the Castro brothers, we should force them to deal with spring break once or twice. (Laughter.)

“But – (chuckles) – but in all seriousness, this president has taken measures to allow more Americans to travel freely, relatives travel for religious or cultural, education purposes. I think that’s a good thing. I hope that you’ll find ways to continue that and continue more innovative approaches to deal with change there.”

Funny, right? Because he’s suggesting that coeds in bikinis could accomplish what more than a half century of American travel restrictions and boycotts could not.

While the 1962 travel embargo remains in effect, in 2011 President rolled back some travel restrictions, in place since 2003, to allow students and religious groups to visit Cuba and to allow charter flights to the island to depart from all U.S. airports. The new guidelines also allow Americans to send up to $500 per quarter to non-family members in the Communist country.

Related: 2011 report on Obama easing some Cuba travel restrictions.

Not everybody thought Flake’s joke was funny. Sen. Bob Menendez, the Democrat from New Jersey and the son of Cuban immigrants who stands to take over as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee if Kerry leaves, came closed the hearing with some harsh words for Flake.

“I had no intention of raising it, but, you know, to suggest that spring break is a form of – a form of torture to the Castro regime – unfortunately, they are experts about torture, as is evidenced by the increasing brutal crackdown on peaceful democracy advocates on the island just in the last year, over 6,600 peaceful democracy advocates detained or arrested.

“Just this past Sunday, the Ladies in White, a group of women who dress in white and march every Sunday with a gladiolus to church, tried to come together to go to church this past Sunday. And the result of that – these are individuals who are the relatives of former or current political prisoners in Castro’s jails – the result is that more than 35 of the Women in White were intercepted, beaten with belts, threatened to death by agents aiming guns at them and temporarily arrested.

“And then we have a United States citizen who all he tried to do is give access to the Internet to a small Jewish population in Havana and has been languishing in jail for nearly four years. That’s real torture.”

Not mentioning Cuba? Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Repubican whose parents immigrated to the United States from Cuba in 1956 just before Castro returned to the country. Rubio focused his questioning of Kerry on North Korea, Syria, the Middle East and China.

Also Read

MANLY, Australia, Jan. 22 (UPI) — An Australian community says it is reviewing procedures at a library after a joke about moving Lance Armstrong‘s books to the fiction section went viral.

Library assistant Jack Dee posted the mock notice on the library counter in Manly just days after the American cyclist admitted to doping throughout his career, the Manly Daily reported,

The newspaper said the notice was photographed and posted on social media by library patron Dan Murray, and by Sunday it was making headlines around the world on websites such as USA Today and the Daily Mail.

Dee removed the notice when he realized it had gone viral, and apologized to the Manly Council, the Daily reported. “I took it down straight away,” Dee said.

A council spokesman said Dee’s job was not in danger, but procedures were under review.

“I think Jack is a very clever, witty, up-and-coming librarian in the Australian community,” Murray said.

1. Open the Internet Browser
2. Click Tools Internet OptionsPrivacyAdvanced
3. Check Override automatic cookie handling
4. For First-party Cookies and Third-party Cookies click Accept
5. Click OK and OK

Enabling Cookies in Firefox

1. Open the Firefox browser
2. Click ToolsOptionsPrivacyUse custom settings for history
3. Check Accept cookies from sites
4. Check Accept third party cookies
5. Select Keep until: they expire
6. Click OK

Enabling Cookies in Google Chrome

1. Open the Google Chrome browser
2. Click Tools iconOptionsUnder the HoodContent Settings
3. Check Allow local data to be set
4. Uncheck Block third-party cookies from being set
5. Uncheck Clear cookies
6. Close all

Enabling Cookies in Mobile Safari (iPhone, iPad)

1. Go to the Home screen by pressing the Home button or by unlocking your phone/iPad
2. Select the Settings icon.
3. Select Safari from the settings menu.
4. Select ‘accept cookies’ from the safari menu.
5. Select ‘from visited’ from the accept cookies menu.
6. Press the home button to return the the iPhone home screen.
7. Select the Safari icon to return to Safari.
8. Before the cookie settings change will take effect, Safari must restart. To restart Safari press and hold the Home button (for around five seconds) until the iPhone/iPad display goes blank and the home screen appears.
9. Select the Safari icon to return to Safari.

(Comedy Central)

Lance Armstrong’s reported doping confession to Oprah Winfrey provided plenty of fodder for the former professional cyclist’s many critics—and plenty of red meat for America’s late-night joke writers.

The seven-time Tour de France champion and testicular cancer survivor taped an interview for Winfrey’s OWN television network on Monday during which he reportedly admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career.

“According to the CDC, over 128 million flu vaccines have been administered this year,” Jay Leno said on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” “That’s almost as many injections as Lance Armstrong has gotten in his entire career.” And Armstrong’s confession, he noted, “came as a shock to as many as a dozen people.”

Armstrong’s sit-down with Winfrey “lasted close to three hours,” Jimmy Fallon quipped on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.” “So it’s sort of like a regular interview but, you know, on steroids.”

And Jimmy Kimmel joked on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” that “inside sources say [Armstrong] refused to come clean about the doping at first, but then he caved when Oprah promised him a panini maker.”

Kimmel then outsourced the rest of his Armstrong zingers to a mock call center in India. “We’ve done a lot of Lance Armstrong jokes over the years, and it’s hard to come up with new stuff,” Kimmel said before turning his monologue over to the outsourced material:

“Why did Lance Armstrong go on the Oprah Winfrey show? Because he thought he’d have a ball.”

“What is the secret of Lance Armstrong’s success? He always stays positive.”

[Related: ‘The View’ panel mocks Lance Armstrong’s testicle size (VIDEO)]

As for “The Daily Show,” it weighed in on Armstrong in a segment called “Mr. Fibb.”

“I believed in you Lance Armstrong,” host Jon Stewart said, feigning outrage. “I shelled out a dollar for a rubber bracelet I have somewhere in my house. … Well I think we all owe cancer an apology.”

Stewart then mocked Winfrey’s recent satellite interview with “CBS This Morning.”

“I would say that for myself, my team, all of us in the room, we were mesmerized and riveted by some of [Armstrong's] answers,” Winfrey told Gayle King.

“So you’re saying we should watch it?” Stewart joked, adding: “By the way, that’s not on satellite—Oprah just appears whenever Gayle gazes into a reflective surface.”

The “Late Show With David Letterman,” meanwhile, dedicated its “Top Ten” list on Tuesday to the other revelations from Armstrong’s Winfrey interview:

10. Artificially enhanced his cycling shorts

9. Still never leaves the house without several vials of clean urine

8. Owns Texas real estate known as “Rancho Decepto”

7. Took steroids to work up the strength to admit taking steroids

6. Once had an inappropriate relationship with an air hose

5. Also has tattoo of Rex Ryan’s wife

4. Has given up on making the baseball Hall of Fame

3. United States Postal Service paid him in stamps

2. Started erotic website, “Tour-De-Pants”

1. Admitted to doping just to get on “Oprah”

Stephen Colbert also skewered Winfrey’s appearance on CBS.

“She sat down … to give us her reaction to what she won’t tell us Lance said,” Colbert noted on “The Colbert Report.” “Well I’m sorry, Oprah. I am not playing into your little PR stunt. If you will not tell us what happened between you and Lance, I have the responsibility as a journalist to make something up.

“This just in,” Colbert then announced. “Lance Armstrong is banging Oprah.”

Colbert also said that “rumors have been swirling for years. But when times got tough for this man, I did not get off the tandem bike of admiration. No, I saddled up, rang the bell of loyalty, put down the kickstand of support and stayed in it to Schwinn it … and I’ve run out of bike metaphors.

“Point is, this man is a hero,” Colbert added. “He beat cancer, then he went on to beat something even less popular: the French.”