Ms. Reno, spare me your tears

By Jon Dougherty

Before last weekend’s Easter “gift” to the relatives of little Elian
Gonzales — which amounted to staging an armed invasion of the Gonzales
home using federal INS border agents dressed like Marine Recon wannabe’s
— I generally shared Elizabeth Farah’s
position

that the boy be reunited with his father and sent home to Cuba.

Sorry, Liz. I love ya, but … thanks to the monumentally stupid
decision by the Clinton administration and Janet Reno’s “justice”
department to “reunite” this boy in this manner, I have changed
my mind. I now side with your old man and my boss, Editor Joe Farah, and
share his
outrage
over this as well as the incredulity expressed by Capitol Hill Blue’s
Doug Thompson.

Initially I thought the administration really gave a damn about this
boy; you know, they’ve always been “child advocates” and base all of
their domestic policy decisions on what’s best “For The Children.” They
really blew it with Elian.

Nobody in his or her right mind would have ordered this boy to
be “reunited” with his father in this manner. Nobody who really cared
about his well being and mental fitness, and certainly nobody who had
any kids of their own, would have ordered such an operation take place.

Attorney General Janet Reno, content to take responsibility for this
decision, could not possibly know what it’s like to have a bunch of
SWAT-geared bozos rip a kid from the arms of those he has grown close
to. Consequently, she could not have chosen a more stupid, bone-headed
and lame-brained thing to do than send in The Cavalry — in the wee
hours of the morning — to retrieve Elian Gonzales. And on
Easter weekend, no less.

I read a news story on Tuesday that said a deputy attorney general
“held” Reno in his arms because she was crying over the decision she
made. She should have been crying; more importantly, she should never
have made the decision that obviously caused her so much grief after the
fact.

But she did make that decision, and President Clinton backed it. So
principally, my decision to change my mind about the government’s case
with Elian centered on two main factors:

First, this administration has routinely flouted, distorted, or
flat-out ignored every single law that would have prevented it from
accomplishing a number of its own personal, selfish goals. And yet, we
are to believe they are only interested in “adhering to the law” in this
case.

Please, Ms. Reno — spare me your tears.

Where were you when Chinese agents were stealing every bit and byte
of U.S. nuclear weapons technology?

Where were you when Bill Clinton and Al Gore and their respective
staffs — working in concert with the Democratic National Committee —
were taking illegal campaign contributions from every shady foreign and
drug dealer they could find?

Where were you when Craig Livingstone helped lift some 900 FBI files
on former and current GOP lawmakers and officials?

Where were you when Hillary Clinton was illegally holding secret
meetings to socialize health care in this country?

And where were you, Ms. Reno, when the latest scandal involving the
White House’s Project X e-mail burial
broke?

And Waco? What about that fiasco? There were children there,
too, Ms. Reno.

You were nowhere to be found, Ms. Attorney General, except, of
course, when it was time to lie, obfuscate or deny any culpability or
direct knowledge of these and other scandals before the establishment
press cameras and reporters.

So don’t get in my face now and tell me you’re simply applying “the
letter of the law” on little Elian’s behalf. Like hell, you are.

The second thing that changed my mind was when I first saw the images
of these INS cops pointing automatic weapons at Elian and one of his
relative protectors. Then — and only then — it hit me: This is
exactly what Fidel Castro himself would do, except this isn’t
Cuba — this is the United States.

Send this boy back to a country like that? I don’t think so.

And there’s another thing. If you’ve ever noticed, Clinton and Reno
have no problems ordering this kind of force or that kind of
force — this “rapid assault” tactic — against Americans or, in the
least, those on American soil. Why is that?

Yet, I’m supposed to believe this administration’s position against
keeping weapons in my own home, around my own kids, because it’s
“unsafe.”

I guarantee there are no photos floating around the world showing
me sticking a fully automatic or semi-automatic assault rifle in
the face of my children.

Forgive me for my initial wrongheaded conclusions about what we ought
to do with you, Elian — the images of you being forced from that house
just broke my heart.

I believe God spared this boy from the icy depths of the Straits of
Florida for a reason — He always has His reasons for these
things. I don’t know what that reason is, but it sure as hell wasn’t so
our own government could snatch this boy away from his relatives in the
middle of the night like a bunch of hooligans and thugs.

I’m ashamed of this government, its agents, its backers, and its
defenders. Damn the “national polls” — this was anything but our most
exemplary moment.

Jon Dougherty

Jon E. Dougherty is a Missouri-based political science major, author, writer and columnist. Follow him on Twitter. Read more of Jon Dougherty's articles here.