Clinton Lets Reno Do the Dirty Work Again America?s Badge of
Shame
nypress.com
It was almost 5:30 last Saturday morning when a journalist
instant e-mailed me, asking "Can you believe what?s going on?"
I?d been reading the dailies?stewing about Frank Rich?s New
York Times foray into kiddie porn?and I wasn?t quite sure what
my friend was referring to. The new Michael Weisskopf/Susan
Schmidt book on Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr? "No, Elian!
Turn on any tv!"
Watching again and again the replay of the military-style
snatch of Elian Gonzalez, I was reminded of the conclusion to
Dog Day Afternoon. Even in the midst of the Miami chaos, it
was obvious the final victim in this no-win tragedy was still
to be determined. I certainly hope it?s Clinton, who hid
behind Janet Reno?s skirt for months on the issue and then
later in the day praised her for upholding the law.
As if he would know anything about that. Once again, it proves
that Clinton is a person of ill repute and completely devoid
of morals. His presidency is a stain on the history of the
United States.
The image captured by the Associated Press? Al Diaz, which
will be remembered as THE PHOTO, was sickening, reminding
anyone over the age of 40 of the young woman screaming over a
dead student at Kent State University in 1970, or of the
execution?pistol to the head?of a Vietcong lieutenant during
that war. Douglas Brinkley, the historian who disgracefully
pontificated on countless news programs last year after John
F. Kennedy Jr. died, said of the photo: "It looks large today.
It?ll look small come September." He hopes so, since his
preference for Al Gore?Brinkley wrote a valentine to the Vice
President in Hillary Clinton?s magazine of record, Talk, last
year?is well-documented.
As I clicked between the Clinton News Network (CNN) and FOX it
was clear this was by far the most frightening and emotional
live tv footage I?ve witnessed since returning from church on
Nov. 24, 1963 and seeing Lee Harvey Oswald rubbed out by Jack
Ruby. For once, the media saturation?in contrast to the deaths
of JFK?s son and Princess Di, the O.J. Simpson farce and the
JonBenet Ramsey murder?was justified. Whereas CNN?s nonstop
coverage of the Columbine shootings a year ago, which included
the funerals of a few victims, was ratings-driven and even
dangerous, given America?s copycat society, the coverage of
the Gonzalez break-in was a vivid and necessary airing of a
Justice Department gone mad.
Miami?s Mayor Joe Carollo was livid as reporters lined up to
get his reaction. He appealed to the citizens of Little Havana
to forsake violence, saying that a massive disruption would
only further buck up a jubilant Fidel Castro, "the tyrant, the
criminal, the murderer." Carollo also said, echoing other
elected officials in Miami, "Our federal government trampled
on the rights of a loving, caring family. We had federal
agents go in as if they assaulting a military bunker, where we
only had decent, patriotic, hardworking, humble men, women and
children." Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart added, with
little hyperbole in my opinion, that the raid was "an
Orwellian monstrosity... a Gestapo-style action. This is
shameful. I hope the American people realize what is going
on."
A few hours later, live on NBC, Elian?s cousin Marisleysis
Gonzalez gave a tour of the house to a reporter, alternately
raging and weeping as she showed how the Clinton-Reno
commandos had broken doors, smashed the six-year-old?s bed,
and defiled a statue of the Virgin Mary and a picture of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus. She recounted the brief procedure,
claiming an INS agent said, "Give me the boy or I?m going to
shoot." She told them: "Don?t let the boy see this! I?ll give
you the boy! Please don?t let the boy see the guns!"
Also live at the same time was Donato Dalrymple, one of the
men who rescued Elian from the sea, now forever known as
Donato the Fisherman, crying as he told the reporter?and
viewers, as he looked into the camera?about the gun pointed at
him and the child he was holding. He screamed that, as an
American, he didn?t think the government would behave like
Castro or other dictators. Marisleysis Gonzalez reappeared and
said: "I thought this was a country?of freedom... [Reno] lied
to this country and, to me, she doesn?t have a heart."
As the footage was shown repeatedly on most tv channels all
through the day, it was hard to believe that the next poll on
the controversy wouldn?t show different results: since
November, most Americans have said the boy should be sent back
to Cuba. Nevertheless, a Saturday afternoon Gallup/CNN poll
still had 57 percent of the country supporting the
administration?s despicable action. I don?t think that will
last. No matter what spin the Clinton administration puts on
the raid, the image of Donato the Fisherman holding Elian with
an INS agent pointing a gun at them won?t be erased.
The Elian Gonzalez saga is a defining moment in the
subterranean life of the nation. And everyone knows it.
A buddy e-mailed at 8:30, asking, "Did you see the picture on
the ?Drudge Report? of the government thug pointing an
automatic weapon at the man holding Elian? I can?t believe
they did this. Reno is a fucking animal. Why aren?t the
Republican leaders speaking out?"
Not long after, Gov. George W. Bush, for once not dodging a
controversial issue, released the most articulate and harsh
statement of the day. He said, in part: "I am profoundly
saddened and troubled that the administration was not able to
negotiate a resolution and instead decided to use force to
take a little boy from the place he calls home in the middle
of the night. When Elian?s mother gave her life to bring her
son to the land of the free, she could not have possibly
dreamed that it would have come to this. Ours is a nation of
laws, not guns. Custody disputes are resolved in the calm of a
courtroom, not in the terror of middle of the night raids...
The chilling picture of a little boy being removed from his
home at gunpoint defies the values of America and is not an
image a freedom loving nation wants to show the world. I hope
that our citizens will do a better job than the administration
has of showing the world the best of America by remaining calm
and peaceful."
Shortly after Bush?s statement, equally damning words came
from Majority Leader Trent Lott, Florida Sen. Connie Mack and
GOP Whip Tom DeLay. Detractors will insist that Bush was
pandering?a la Al Gore?but he?s been consistent from the
beginning in saying that Elian Gonzalez would be better off in
the United States, as has Sen. John McCain. While it?s true
that Bush has, as Paul Gigot pointed out in Friday?s Wall
Street Journal, gone overboard with the campaign promises in
an effort to appeal to independent voters, his position on
Elian Gonzalez has been unequivocal, even though a majority of
Americans have disagreed. Bush?s statement on Saturday was the
first indication he?s given that he?s a leader of the
Republican Party; it?s no accident that the rank and file
followed after he acted first.
Gore, who had no role in Reno?s decision, was squishy as ever
in his terse remarks: "As I have said, I believe this issue
should have been handled through a family court and with the
family coming together. I commend the people of Miami, who in
the first difficult hours acted in a calm and lawful way, and
I ask all Americans, no matter what their position on this
issue, to obey the rule of law."
I wonder why the Vice President never asked his boss to "obey
the rule of law." In addition, if Gore had wanted to show some
guts and repair the damage to his character he?s shown by
trolling for Cuban-American votes in Florida, he?d have called
for Reno?s resignation. That wouldn?t have secured his
election this fall?as his resignation from office, accompanied
by a citation of Clinton?s lawlessness, would have?but it
would?ve been a decisive break from a corrupt administration
that he needs to distance himself from. But Gore can?t cut the
apron (and fundraising) strings.
On Sunday, the lead sentences of the Gonzalez story in both
The Washington Post and New York Times were unusually graphic,
especially for newspapers that do little to hide their pro-
Clinton bias. Karen DeYoung wrote in the Post: "Eight
helmeted, SWAT-equipped federal agents broke down the front
door of the Miami home of Elian Gonzalez?s relatives before
dawn yesterday and removed the boy, avoiding serious incident
but sparking a day of sporadic violence and demonstrations in
Little Havana." Rick Bragg, in the Times, was grittier,
spitting out words like a wartime correspondent: "Armed United
States immigration agents smashed their way into the Little
Havana home of Elian Gonzalez?s Miami relatives before dawn
today, took the sobbing 6-year-old boy from a bedroom closet
and flew him to a reunion with his father outside Washington."
Surprisingly, the Times, in its late Sunday editions, ran an
editorial that was highly critical of the administration, in
stark contrast to The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times
and The Boston Globe. While it was expected that The Miami
Herald, which ran its negative edit on its front page?"In the
aftermath of Saturday?s shocking predawn raid by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service, it is imperative that
Miami remain calm"?the stinging words from the Times? Ivory
Tower were a welcome jolt.
I never miss an opportunity to bash the most overrated
newspaper in the world, but on this issue the Times rose to
the occasion, favoring truth over white-stretch-limo liberal
partisanship. An excerpt of the editorial: "The sight of
heavily armed federal agents breaking into Lazaro Gonzalez?s
Miami home before dawn yesterday to take custody of Elian
Gonzalez is a disturbing picture for all Americans, and is
likely to haunt the country for years to come... Ms. Reno was
quick to note the agent did not have his finger on the
trigger, and was not pointing the rifle at Elian, but that
offers little solace to a nation that is wondering today why
the government, with all its power, could not have acted with
greater restraint and continued patience."
The Los Angeles Times felt otherwise: "Reno made a hard
decision and made it stick... This drama has not ended, but
it?s taken a positive turn." The Washington Post was also in
the Attorney General?s hip pocket, writing: "The Government
did the right thing, cleanly and well... The government raid
was swift, deft and solicitous as regards the boy, and it was
the relatives who provoked it." I?d like to know what nitwit
at the Post actually believes that the presence of machine
guns and the trashing of the house where he?d lived was
"solicitous as regards the boy."
In addition, the Post took a swipe at Gore and Bush, saying,
"Two champions of family values flee responsibility in pursuit
of votes." I?ll leave the robotic Gore out of this, but if
Bush was really "in pursuit of votes," he wouldn?t have
uttered a peep on Saturday, since most of the country doesn?t
agree with his stance on Elian?s future. Instead, he swiftly
reacted with a human expression of dismay and disgust,
concerned more with the atrocious image the United States has
presented to the world than with the votes of Cuban-Americans,
which he?s already locked up anyway.
New York senatorial candidate Hillary Clinton, of course, kept
her mouth shut until 48 hours after the fact. Rudy Giuliani,
the First Lady?s opponent, was voluble in his criticism at a
press conference at the Javits Center on Saturday. It was an
ironic statement, since the Mayor is well-known for his
strong-arm tactics, from his publicity-seeking Wall Street
indictments in the 80s to his current lack of sensitivity on
matters trivial and large today. He was a questionable
messenger, but the sentiment itself was on target: "It was one
of the saddest days we?ve seen... pointing guns at people to
rip a boy away from a family that is caring for him, and a boy
who has at least indicated an interest in growing up in
democracy and freedom."
It?s not a stretch to imagine Giuliani as U.S. Attorney
General, with a different set of political cards, carrying out
the same maneuver as Reno.
But on the topic of irony, what could top First Soul Brother
Jesse Jackson?s opinion, as recorded by Fox: "It was a very
successful rescue mission." I wonder what Jackson?s alleged
mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose death Jackson
exploited to advance his own career, would have to say about
the Reno-Clinton Miami break-in.
And let?s not forget the ugly words of Juan Miguel Gonzalez?s
representative, Gregory Craig, one of Clinton?s impeachment
lawyers, who released the smiling photos of Elian and his
father to the press. While Lazaro and Marisleysis Gonzalez
raged against the injustice inflicted upon them and Elian,
Craig smugly told reporters that the duo should remain quiet
instead of holding another press conference to make demands
and "transporting their soap opera from Miami to Washington,
DC."
Next to Clinton, Craig is the most obvious pig in the sordid
events of the past week.
Finally, both Time and Newsweek, in their May 1 editions,
revealed once again their reflexive support for almost
anything President Clinton does. Time was worse than its
competitor, with a cover headline reading "Papa!" in the
middle of the Craig-sanctioned reunion picture and a caption
that referred to Elian?s "dad" under a small rendering of THE
PHOTO in the lower left corner.
Newsweek?s cover featured a screaming Elian right after he was
kidnapped by a federal agent, with an inset of father and son
safely in Maryland. Jonathan Alter?s "Conventional Wisdom" was
in the worst possible taste, titled "Special Hasta la Vista,
Baby, Edition," and ridiculing Elian?s Miami relatives.
However, the magazine redeemed itself with George Will?s
column "Compassionate Liberalism," an essay that ranks among
the finest in his long career.
Will begins: "The Clinton administration, which thinks it
takes a village to raise a child, knows that a masked SWAT-
type team with battering ram, automatic weapons and pepper
spray suffices to snatch a child, terrified, in a predawn
raid. But Elian was fortunate. The last time Janet Reno?one of
the worst attorneys general in American history and certainly
the most lethal?inflicted her caring on children, they were
incinerated... Fear of child abuse was Reno?s excuse for
launching what became the Waco inferno."
He continues: "Most Americans, influenced by the drumbeat of
the media and the Clinton administration, favor returning
Elian to Cuba. They say they are concerned with parental
rights. Well, Cuba isn?t. Its policy is that parents have
rights only ?as long as their influence does not go against
the political objectives of the state.? Children need fathers,
but they need the culture of freedom even more...
"Like a snail crossing a sidewalk, the Clinton administration
leaves a lengthening trail of slime, this time on America?s
national honor."
As eloquent and stinging as Will?s words are, he lets creeps
like Clinton and Craig off relatively easy. Future historians
won?t be so gracious.
April 24
-- also, the abc interview with Elian is worthwhile reading in case anyone missed it.
abcnews.go.com
abcnews.go.com |
