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Shame on Janet Reno
It was Fidel Castro, not the Miami González family, who kept Elián from his father.
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And second-day stories shifted attention to the danger that awaits the boy back in Cuba. "Brainwashing in store for boy," warns the headline of Robert Novak's column.

On Capitol Hill Monday it was impeachment déjŕ vu, when the cast of House Republican leaders who voted for Clinton's removal from office weighed in on the weekend's events in Miami. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., who presided over 1998 impeachment hearings, announced that his staff would begin "a preliminary inquiry" into the tactics used to seize Elián. Once again, Rep. Tom DeLay was "outraged," "sickened" and "ashamed." And as if for old time's sake, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., called the actions of the administration "reckless."

The conflict over Elián is yet another striking example of the way the left and the right have traded places in recent years. Just like left-wingers in the 1960s, today's hardline conservatives are convinced they're doing battle with an immoral government whose laws may be ignored in the service of a higher power. The evil that is Cuba trumps a father's right to custody of his son among the family-values crowd, and Reno's raid is transformed into the second coming of Nazi storm troopers, rather than a lamentable but reasonable response to a family that had nine days earlier defied a federal order to hand over the child.

The nation deserves a full accounting of the steps leading to Reno's actions, as we do anytime armed government agents enter a private home. Polls show the American people favor the return of Elián to his father, though they are divided on the question of whether the Justice Department used too much force. But the attempt to demonize the department will fail, as impeachment did before it. The right is too blinded by its hatred of Clinton and Reno to effectively reach people who don't share it. It's in danger of becoming a cult rather than a political movement -- dangerous, perhaps, but ultimately politically ineffectual.
salon.com | April 25, 2000

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