Early fervor over 'outrage' fizzled after opinion polls
By Joseph A. D'Agostino. © 2000, Human Events . May 8, 2000
Having backed down from his initial commitment to hold a hearing May 3 into the legality of the Elian Gonzalez raid, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, could not decide last week when he would reschedule it.
"The hearings have been postponed, not canceled," said Judiciary Committee Spokesman Jean Lapato. "I am under the impression that we will have them eventually. Sen. Hatch has never said otherwise."
On NBC's "Meet the Press" April 30, Hatch had complained that Attorney General Janet Reno had not turned over the documents he had asked for, necessitating a postponement of the May 3 hearing. Then he said, "Once we get those, I think we can make an intelligent appraisal as to
whether hearings should be held or not. Whether we should go forth, whether we shouldn't."
On May 4, Lapato said the Justice Department was still stalling on producing some documents.
"There are two kinds, they say," she said. "There are some they can't find, and some they consider confidential. We asked them to give us a log of both kinds by the end of today, and explain why the confidential ones cannot be given to us."
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., while still in favor of hearings, said May 2, "I don't think there was very much momentum for hearings to begin with."
Lott spokesman John Czwaracki told Human Events on May 4, "Sen. Lott very much wants these hearings to happen. We're on track to have them. We're waiting for the documentation." When asked whether Hatch would cooperate with Lott's desire to hold hearings, Czwaracki said, "Sen.
Lott doesn't run the committees, but he has made his wishes very clear."
The Republican climb-down came after the release of polls apparently showing the American public in favor of reuniting Elian with his father and against a congressional investigation.
A USA Today/CNN/Gallup taken April 24 showed 60 percent in favor of the raid, 5 percent against. However, 46 percent said agents used the right amount of force and 45 percent said too much was used.
A CBS poll taken the same day found 51 percent in favor of the raid. A Zogby poll found 52 percent were in favor, and 38 percent were opposed. It also found that 62 percent "did not want congressional hearings."
The day after the raid, several Republican congressional leaders issued harsh denunciations of it.
"How does waving a machine gun at a 6-year-old demonstrate to anyone here or abroad that we respect and will defend the principles of freedom? ... This is a sad day for all us. I will never forget the look of terror in that young boy's eye," said House Majority Whip Tom DeLay,
R.-Texas. "You bet there'll be congressional hearings. It is an unconstitutional act that is a frightening act."
Lott said, "My first thought was that this could only happen in Castro's Cuba. ... President Clinton should not have allowed this to happen. This type of force clearly was not justified."
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R.-Ill., said the raid demonstrated "reckless disregard for our values."
Hatch told the Deseret News on April 24, "What right did they have to break down the door and storm that home? They say they had permission of a magistrate. I'd like to hear more about that. I was appalled by combat-dressed INS agents storming the house with automatic weapons when there was
no indication at all that these people are violent. I wonder why they were doing it before the 11th Circuit Court had its hearing. ... The family had indicated it would abide by whatever was the decision of the court."
Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, asked Reno in an April 24 letter, "Who authorized this outrage?"
Presidential candidate George W. Bush added, "The chilling picture of a little boy being removed from his home at gunpoint is not an image a freedom-loving nation wants to show the world."
The Republicans, however, apparently do not believe this matter is important enough that government witnesses need to be called any time soon -- before their famously fragile memories begin to fade -- to recount their roles in the decision to launch the raid and to discuss the details of its
execution.
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