Washington Times-June 9, 2000

'Go away, little boy, you're bothering us'

By Wesley Pruden

     Everybody got a piece of little Elian Gonzalez. There's less
to send back to Fidel Castro than there used to be.

     Fidel got a live trophy, seized from the toothless Uncle
Sugar. Bill Clinton got an assurance that Fidel won't flood
Florida with robbers and rapists from his prisons, sinking Al
Gore the way he sank Gov. Bill Clinton in Arkansas an eon or two
ago.

     Greg Craig, who is but two ambulances short of a shyster,
got a high-profile client, even if he did have to mooch his fee
from Democratic fat cats in Georgetown after the National Council
of Churches, a refuge of dying congregations with empty pews, was
forced by internal outrage to balk at coughing up the dough. The
odious Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, all bosom and bombast bereft of
a pulpit to call her own, got an unexpected 15 minutes of fame
for her part in dispatching little Elian back to her favorite
satrapy, where he won't eat nearly as well as she does.

     Janet Reno got to be of some further use to Bill Clinton in
the last days of his disgraced presidency, maybe enough to shore
up her pension and health-insurance benefits as the sordid facts
of Al Gore's escape from prosecution paint a legacy of corruption
at the Justice Department.

     The agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service got
to play with their guns, pretending to be at Omaha Beach, playing
war not against evildoers their own size but against frightened
women and a terrified little boy. (When the Justice Department
put out a thrilling tale of its manly agents this week, hearts
pounding at how brave they were, their names were omitted so they
could hide.)

     Even the Republicans got a piece of Elian. They practiced
their rhetoric, empty as usual and more squeak than roar, a
prelude to the inevitable climb-down. Tom DeLay's outrage and
Dennis Hastert's anger subsided when the polls told them that
doing something to help Elian would undermine their slogan for
this fall: "Vote Republican. We're not as bad as you think."

     Rep. Steve Largent of Oklahoma got the biggest Republican
piece of Elian. Mr. Largent had dug himself into a hole as a
member of the committee choosing the new House chaplain. In an
interview with the Catholic candidate, he asked whether the
priest's clerical collar might offend Protestants. Such a
question would not have raised an eyebrow in rural Oklahoma,
where Protestants and Catholics are grown-ups and engage each
other in real conversation, but in contemporary urban America,
where finding offense has become a growth industry, Mr. Largent
had stepped in a pile of the stuff that made Texas and Oklahoma
famous. The House leadership, terrified of losing the Catholic
vote, pressured Mr. Largent to do something.

     Enter Charlie Rangel, the Harlem Democrat who has been
leading the charge to send little Elian back to the paradise
where life is not really so bad. (Doesn't Fidel pass out fine
cigars to his congressional visitors?) Maybe, if Steve Largent
could do something for Charlie, Charlie could do something for
Steve. Whatever, soon afterward, Mr. Largent, who had been
leading the effort to grant citizenship to Elian, signed an op-ed
piece in the New York Times, a mawkish appeal to the government
to send Elian back to Fidel. What a coincidence: the organized
Catholic anger at Mr. Largent, now a nice Rangel Republican,
dissipated overnight.

     Just when it looked like this sordid episode couldn't get
any smarmier, it did. Government memoranda and e-mail unearthed
by court order (thanks to Judicial Watch) reveal in stark detail
just how desperate Bill Clinton, the State Department and the
Clinton kiddie corps are to kiss Fidel where the flies are
thickest. These internal documents reveal how the U.S. government
"coordinated" with Fidel the strategy for sending Elian home,
even the timing of the litigation, and how it tried to maneuver
the Catholic Church into taking the heat for the betrayal of
Elian.

     And finally, how the Clinton administration colluded with
Fidel Castro over how to manage U.S. newspaper and television
coverage of the incident — to give "guidance." A generation ago,
a suggestion that a presidential administration was trying to
"manage" the news caused an uproar that ruined the reputations of
decent men. Now we shall see how the mavens of the American
media, who have given standing ovations to Janet Reno for her
politically correct mismanagement of the Elian affair, will react
to the news that the Clinton administration sought the assistance
of Fidel in pulling their strings.

     One day Elian Gonzalez may have the opportunity in a free
Cuba to reflect on how his mother gave her life to get him to the
land of the free and the home of the brave — and who it was who
betrayed him for their own cheap ends.


Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Times



=================================================================
             Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT

  FROM THE DESK OF:                    <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
                      *Mike Spitzer*     <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
                         ~~~~~~~~          <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

   The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
       Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
=================================================================

<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths,
misdirections
and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and
minor
effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said,
CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
<A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>

http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
 <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Om

Reply via email to