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"Notice, you stand up for the family, father and kid."

To do that, you would have had to demand that the father be left alone to go get his kid, free from Fidel's goons, and that Fidel release his family in Cuba, and allow them to freely come here if they so desired.

Tell me, from the looks of this story, who is using Elián as a political tool?

Do you think his father could have told Castro that he would rather NOT have a national celebration for Elián's birthday?

The amazxing thing is that in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, you still have some f%*$d up notion that we know what the father wanted in that case.

What amazed, horrified, and facsinated me and Hub at the time was the way the leftists invoked family values in such a cynical way, to justify returning this refugee child to the inhuman Cuban hellhole.

I remember at the time that ADM, an international corporation, was interested in some sugar contracts which Castro held up, on condition of Elian's return. Elian's miraculous survival at sea was a rebuke to Castro, and he wanted the US to return the kid to him or no contracts.

It's my conjecture -- and only conjecture -- that ADM exerted influence on Clinton for Elian's return. A whole bunch of lefties, including the Methodist female head of the American Council of Churches (can't recall her name), got on public television and harped about family values to paint the whole thing over with some sort of justification.

The number of people in this country who were absolutely horrified at the pre-dawn raid and the photos of the genuine jack-booted thug, the reporter who was literally thrown out of the way, and the screaming child thrown into the white van by Commando Betty--these people are countless.

They've not forgotten. They vote. And I'm one of them.

This is one of the very worst of the scandals of the Clinton administration. The defenders of the return of Elian to Cuba are, in my opinion, without defense, themselves.

Father's rights is a rationalization coldly and heartlessly used to cover the coercion of Elian's father in this charade.

After Waco, we should not have been shocked, but it is a very black mark on Clinton's soul, and it left a permanent bruise on my heart.