Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

�

Click here for the Secret Decoder Ring to this issue!

A Few Last Elian Points"

Wednesday, April 26, 2000

Juan Miguel Gonzalez had certain advantages in the negotiations with the Miami Relatives because his attorney, Greg Craig, had certain advantages:

(1) Craig has a briefcase full of IOUs signed by the President of these United States, Bill Clinton;
(2) He had absolute veto power over any deal - this was not a negotiation between the Miami family, the INS, and the Justice Department. It was a negotiation with the INS and the Justice Department on behalf of Greg Craig;
(3) Craig knew he had the advantage of having people with guns to back up his decisions so,
(4) He knew he really never had to negotiate at all.

From Tuesday's White House press briefing with Press Secretary Joe Lockhart:
Q [from a reporter]: I'm talking about people who say yes, you had a search warrant, but you didn't get a court order, which would have given you that much more -
MR. LOCKHART: Well, a court order was not necessary in this case, and it was a judgment we made. We did not need a court order, we got the search warrant, that was enough to go forward.

So far, so good. Then, about 30 seconds later, this exchange:
Q: Have Cuban officials had access to the Gonzalez family at Andrews?
MR. LOCKHART: I don't know. You should ask that to the Justice Department, which is handling it.

What in the Wide, Wide World of Sports is a'goin' on here? Joe Lockhart, Press Secretary to the President of these United States, knows chapter and verse of the legal situation regarding whether or not a court order was needed to storm the house, but doesn't know whether or not the Cuban government has been knocking back a few cervezas with old Juan Miguel at Andrews Air Force Base.

Joe? Joe? Follow-up? Follow-up over here, please?

This, from the American Civil Liberties Union web page: "The Immigrants' Rights Project (IRP) of the American Civil Liberties Union works to defend the civil and constitutional rights of immigrants through a comprehensive program of impact litigation and public education."

Dear ACLU: I would like to bring to your attention �

George W. Bush was in Dayton, Ohio the yesterday talking about his proposal to offer banks tax credits to match up to $300 in savings for low-income Americans to use to finance homes, businesses and education. We know this because it was in the ninth graf of an AP story headlined: "Gore Claims Clinton Economic Legacy."

Bush was in Dayton with four - count 'em folks - four DEMOCRATS from Texas all of whom are former or current members of the state legislature to illustrate his point that both Republicans and Democrats have "to recognize the good ideas and to come together." We know this because it was in the 13th graf of that same story.

We also know this because The Lad had the task of driving them back to the airport and got them all lost.

If a Republican - any Republican - even smiled at Gore, the headline of every news story for a full day would be "GOP Breaking with Bush."

On Monday, Mullings published a picture which seemed to indicate that the INS agent who was bracing Eli�n and the guy holding him had his weapon in the "safe" position. There are a number of people who, having viewed that picture, e-mailed me IN CAPITAL LETTERS and with projectile sweat coming through the modem, that the weapon was in the firing position. If you know anything about this stuff, take another look at it here and let me know.

-- END --

Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

Current Issue | Secret Decoder Ring | Past Issues | Email Rich | Rich Who?