WASHINGTON -- Janet Reno's contention that the Elian Gonzalez matter was one of a son needing to be reunited with his father and not political is complete claptrap.
This entire affair has been political from the beginning, and no one is more aware of it than the attorney general.What is more, the decision to remove him at gunpoint from the home of his Miami protectors and deliver him to his hard-nosed Communist father in the Washington area is likely to have political repercussions reaching into the November presidential elections.
While Albert Gore has joined the ranks of those who now believe domestic courts should decide who gets the 6-year old, he is, after all, still vice president of the United States and part of the administration that took the dramatic action in this incredible case. The startling images of an Immigration and Naturalization Service agent in full battle gear pointing his weapon at the frightened child and the adult holding him are not the kind of pictures with which any politician wants to be associated.
At the very least, they could damage Gore's hopes of upsetting George W. Bush in Florida, a key state in their presidential race.
The attorney general's decision, sanctioned by her lame-duck boss, Bill Clinton, also gives Fidel Castro the political propaganda victory he has been seeking. The virulent anti-Castro community in Miami can now be painted by him as a group of thugs who have to be forced into obeying the law by armed troops, and Cuban television lost no time in portraying it that way.
On the other hand, the terrified face of the little boy being taken by force from the home he has known since his miraculous rescue from the sea is one that could resound around the world to the political detriment of the current administration, much as Waco did at the beginning of Reno's record-breaking tour in the Justice Department.
Why now when a federal court still is expected to review the case on May 11?
There seems to be little explanation other than the government had become frustrated by the intransigence of the boy's Miami relatives and was embarrassed by the father who suggested angrily that the Justice Department, Reno and the president were impotent when it came to carrying out the law. Having talked tough and backed down several times, Reno, said to be haunted by the images of Waco, received the word from an irritated president: Wind it up in the next 48 hours.
If there was such a pressing need to put the boy in the arms of his intense father, there were half a dozen scenarios that would have accomplished it in less disruptive fashion. Reno herself could have gone to the home where he was staying, walked through the crowd and emerged with the boy.
She could have sent unarmed INS agents or federal marshals into the house while armed forces remained outside and the young female cousin who has bonded with Elian over the months could have been asked to accompany them to turn the boy over. The father himself, under guard, could have gone to the house to retrieve the son. Certainly there would have been risk, but most fathers who really care would have ignored any danger to themselves to be reunited.
All this is probably easier said than done, but almost any peaceful effort would have been preferable to what occurred.
What truly is sad is the Clinton administration's handling of the matter from the very beginning. Elian should have been removed from the custody of his Miami family the minute it was decided that his father had legal custody. It could have been accomplished quickly and quietly months ago before emotions ran high and rampant. The father should have flown here almost immediately to pick up the son instead of waiting weeks and weeks to do so.
It still is unclear why he didn't. The explanation probably lies with Castro who saw an opportunity to turn this into a political victory by both embarrassing the United States and, most particularly, his Miami foes for whom the boy became an almost mystical symbol of their struggle against the bearded dictator.
Not political? Are you kidding?