Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Now Hear This

Friday, April 28, 2000

From Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Hearings, hearings, hearings. Here's the deal on the Senate and the House holding hearings into the Elian raid: I, as a regular American, am curious to know why Attorney General Reno decided to approve the raid in the manner she did and at the time she did. That's all. I'm interested in peeking into the decision-making process.

Both Trent Lott's office and Connie Mack's office have indicated they are looking at a hearing which might last a couple or three days. There has been none of the tell-tale signs of a protracted effort: No hiring of special counsels, no requests for additional money, no readying stacks of subpoenas demanding trucks-full of documents.

So, let's hear what the Administration has to say, and then move along. But there does not appear to be any danger in the Senate of this hearing spinning out of control unless an Alexander Butterfield-type of witness appears.

In the House, of course, there is always the danger that, by the time the process is ended, they will have succeeded in turning Janet Reno into Joan of Arc. But, happily, the House is on a break until next week.

The New York Times, yesterday had a very moving picture on the front page of the edition which was distributed in Your Nation's Capital of Senator John McCain looking a cell in the Hanoi prison camp in which he was a POW. The picture shows McCain standing in a cell behind a barred window.

I am not an anti-McCain person. But I believe the New York Times' editorial staff is convinced that if the paper continues to cover him as if he COULD be the President of the United States, then somehow the voters will rise up next November and, in a burst of spontaneous election, see they made a horrible error in nominating Bush and Gore and elect McCain.

Headline on the AP wire: "Bush Pursues Women Voters." Bush plus three words. The Clinton Presidency allowed everyone in AP Headline Land to do their jobs much more efficiently. During its hey-day the headline writers only needed the word "Clinton" and the next two words.

Even close advisors to Al Gore are admitting that the Gore campaign is adrift. Ever since he got himself involved in the Elian matter, his campaign has been going nowhere. Look for the New! Improved! Al Gore. On your Supermarket shelves this fall! The one thing that Gore should really get credit for inventing is � himself.

One place where there was some focus was in a session with Department of Justice investigators who questioned the Vice President for about four hours on the campaign fund raising scandals of 1996. This has been reported previously, but Brian Blumquist, of the New York Post, wrote yesterday that Gore "blew his top" when the feds dared to ask him about the infamous Buddhist Temple scam.

According to the Post, "The 'contentious' session ended in a yelling match between Gore and federal investigators.

Forget about whether Gore thought the questions were "outrageous." Here's what I'm outraged about: How is it that the Feds took FOUR YEARS to get around to quizzing him?

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Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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