WASHINGTON -- A high-octane effort to let U.S. tourists visit Cuba got a major endorsement Thursday from one of the island's leading dissidents, who suggested that ``along with suitcases, Bermuda shorts, and sunblock, support, solidarity, and freedom could come too.'' Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, who this week drew the attention of President Barack Obama, wrote in an essay to House Foreign Affairs chairman Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., that lifting the ban on U.S. travel to Cuba ``could bring more results in the democratization of Cuba than the indecisive performance of Raúl Castro.''

``Both peoples,'' she wrote of Cubans and Americans, ``would come out winners.''

Berman read portions of Sánchez's essay at an impassioned hearing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on whether to lift the travel ban, after critics and supporters of the decades-old ban cited Sánchez's recent beating and detention at the hands of Cuban security forces to criticize the Castro regime.

``Three. That's the number of Cuban agents who threw a blogger head-first into an unmarked black car and beat her for speaking about freedom,'' said Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral, dubbing the effort to lift the ban a ``Castro bailout, a bailout for beatings, oppression, rape, torture, corruption and tyranny.''

The hearing -- the first time a full congressional committee has delved into the hotly contested issue of lifting the travel ban -- came as proponents suggest they've got their best opportunity to date to scrap the prohibition that prevents American tourists from spending money in Cuba. And Berman made it clear he plans to continue pushing -- perhaps scheduling a hearing on legislation as soon as next spring.

``I don't want just a hearing, I want to eliminate the travel ban,'' Berman said after the hearing. ``I think there's a better chance than ever before.''

Opponents of lifting the ban suggest the votes aren't there to pass the legislation and pointed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's remarks Thursday to suggest House leadership is unlikely to engage in a floor fight on Cuba policy anytime soon.

Pelosi at a press conference said she has always favored lifting the ban, but suggested it's not a priority for the House.

``Right now we are interested in job creation and investments in health care,'' the Pelosi said. ``I don't know when that would be coming to the floor.''

The legislation could face an even tougher reception in the Senate, where several senators are prepared to block it.

The hearing attracted a standing-room-only crowd that Berman on occassion asked to hold its applause. Proponents of travel wore stickers calling for the right to visit Cuba. A group of former Cuban political prisoners -- whom Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen noted had left New Jersey before dawn to attend the hearing -- wore buttons noting the number of years they had spent in Cuban prisons.

Proponents of lifting the ban argued that 50 years of isolating Cuba had done little to bring democracy to the island and that Americans should have the right to travel to the island. They suggested Americans could be ambassadors for change.

``It should be recalled that the Iron Curtain started to be opened by millions of Westerners visiting the countries beyond it,'' Miriam Leiva, a founding member of the protest group Ladies in White in Cuba, told the lawmakers via videoconference from the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. ``We hope to greet you soon in Havana, when all Americans could visit Cuba.''

But Ros-Lehtinen and others argued that tourism dollars would only enrich the Castro regime -- which James Cason, the former chief at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, noted penalizes Cubans for talking to foreigners. Ros-Lehtinen noted that Europeans and tourists ``from around the world'' have been going to Cuba ``for rum, music, sex, cigars and sun for years.

``Have they brought about democratic reform and change?'' she asked.

She got into a dustup with retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who told the panel that Cuba represents no risk to national security and hurts longtime U.S. interests. McCaffrey took exception to Ros-Lehtinen for seeming to question his national security credentials and for calling him ``Mr. McCaffrey,'' rather than ``General.''

``To refute the argument that I had offered to the committee, she seemed to be implying my lack of commitment to U.S. national security, which is a silly thing for her to do,'' McCaffrey told reporters after the hearing. ``She stated a very carefully chosen way to denigrate my military credentials, which she is not authorized to do.''

Ros-Lehtinen said she disagrees with McCaffrey's stance on Cuba, but ``did not mean in any way to not respect his service by calling him Mr. and not General.''

She said she had written down her questions to McCaffrey and that ``General'' appears in her handwritten notes.