I Beg Your Pardon;
The One You Promised in the Rose Garden
Friday, April 14, 2000
The notion that the President of the United States could be asked, at a public forum involving the senior editors of the nation's leading newspapers, whether he expected to be pardoned for crimes he may have committed during his Presidency is � remarkable.
The notion that the President would feel it necessary to seriously answer such a question was � remarkable.
Al "I-Invented-Newspapers" Gore told the same meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors when asked if he would offer a pardon to Clinton, Gore said Clinton had answered that question long ago. And therefore did not answer the question, once again giving what Ben Bradlee called during the Watergate days: "A non-denial denial."
Actually, President Clinton had not answered that question until it was asked yesterday - a day after Gore's remarks.
Paradoxically, Al "I-Invented-Gerald-Ford" Gore could never pardon his boss, but George W., under the protective umbrella of putting the scandal-laden Clinton/Gore era behind us, could.
For his part Al "I -Invented-Reporting" Gore was supposed to hold his first press conference since February 19th yesterday but it was cancelled once his campaign realized he had painted himself into a political corner on the Elian Gonzalez deal and he would be asked about pardoning President Clinton in the context of the continuing doubt regarding his own fund-raising scandals.
So, the wait continues. In an embarrassingly weak attempt to draw attention away from his lack of accessibility to the press, the Gore campaign issued a release saying they were going to keep track of the days since Al "I-Smoked-Joints-But-I-Invented-Joint-Appearances" Gore challenged George W. to debate.
Kathy Lee Alert: The AFL-CIO is running television ads against the trade deal with China citing abuses of workers' rights - which abuses, by the way, are not in dispute. China is one of the few remaining Communist countries in the world. Another is Cuba. Why no demonstrations against a Castro regime? Why no demonstrations against Juan Miguel Gonzalez - the boy's father - who is a member of the Communist party of Cuba?
Are there any abuses of workers' rights in that Island Paradise? Any reporters see a tie-in here?
It is hard to believe the Administration could have so mismanaged this episode that it seems to be frozen on the issue of one little boy - Elian Gonzalez - in Miami. Attorney General Janet Reno, with nothing better to do with her time, meets in Washington with the boy's father, flies to Miami to visit personally with the boy's other relatives, and comes up empty.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post, Monday, ran a front page story about yet ANOTHER famine looming in Africa - which has, apparently, completely escaped everyone else's attention putting thousands of children at risk of starvation.
How about this?
How about we leave Elian in Miami and start bringing starving African children TO the United States?
How about Janet Reno and the National Council of Churches flying private jets to Ethiopia, to deliver food rather than using them to fly well dressed and well-heeled government officials and lawyers around?
[For the entire rant on the growing famine in Africa,
please tune to the Secret Decoder Ring page.]
We have seen how one child can gain our national attention. Kudos to the Washington Post for reminding us there are a lot of people - a lot of children - who do not have half of the U.S. government worried about them.
If this whole mismanaged, misguided episode is worth anything, it is worth reminding us that EVERY little boy and EVERY little girl is - and should be - as important to us as Elian Gonzalez.
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