I really

haven't paid all that much attention to Al Gore over the

last eight years.

Vice

presidents are almost always invisible anyway, and Gore

all the more so for his wooden personality. Other than

making some ridiculous comments about inventing the

Internet and pushing for environmental controls that have

nothing to do with improving the environment, he hasn't

attracted much attention.

But now

that he is riding the campaign trail again in hopes of

taking Clinton's place, we're beginning to get a feel for

the issues he thinks are important.

Like

sending that little boy back to Cuba. Oops! That was last

week. Now he wants to keep Elian Gonzalez here and let

the state courts decide his ultimate fate.

Seems the

veep has been watching his boss's poll-reading techniques

carefully while he waited in the wings. He knows

Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush has a

strong foothold in the Latino community, especially in

Texas where he is governor and in Florida where his

brother is governor.

His naked

decision to use Elian to get him face time, and to

blithely switch from his former position in order to do

it, tells me Gore may be as devoid of principle as

Clinton is.

That scares

me a bit, because recent history has shown that lack of

principle is a plus, not a minus, in getting elected.

Back to

Elian, what a mess!

Maybe

sending him back would have been the right thing. I doubt

it, but I'm willing to entertain the possibility. But

since the whole issue has been dealt with in political,

rather than humanitarian, terms, and the poor kid has

been here long enough to start building a life, to send

him back now would be the height of cruelty.

The list of

people who have exploited the situation for political

reasons is long, and while I'm festooning Gore for his

part in it I have to reserve a little slap for boy George

as well, and some of the congressmen who have made a big,

noisy deal of visiting Elian's Miami family too.

The whole

thing has become a shameful circus.

Number one

on the list of villains, though, has to be Fidel Castro.

Without his turning it into an international incident,

the problem of Elian could have been handled properly,

and somewhat more quietly, by the courts and Customs.

I say

"somewhat" more quietly, because the media had

latched onto this story and were going to keep it on the

front pages for awhile regardless. But the added

international political wrangling made it much worse.

And now

Fidel is making noises about sending Elian's father to

the States to fight personally for his son's return, as

if to quiet those who are suggesting that Mr. Gonzalez

would defect and stay here with Elian if given the

chance.

Of course,

he will be accompanied by "counselors."

Translate that as a couple of goons to make sure the

defection predictions don't come true.

I have

never advocated a media blackout. Once news organizations

start deciding not to report news because of the effect

their reporting will have, they've opened a Pandora's box

that will be impossible to close. But if ever there was a

case where it would be justified for the reporters to

just say no, this is it.

Without the

glare of publicity, Elian's life would be better no

matter where he ends up living.