Editorial: GOP leaders are way out of bounds

Friday, April 28, 2000 | 10:02 a.m.

Reasonable people can have honest disagreements over the Elian Gonzalez case. Unfortunately the Republican congressional leadership has decided instead to unleash its spite on the issue. The vitriol not only has been directed against Attorney General Janet Reno for authorizing the return of Elian to his father, but it also has been aimed at the federal agents who conducted the lawful raids.

Last weekend Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said the operation reminded him of "Castro's Cuba." Not to be outdone, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, on Monday referred to the agents as "jackbooted thugs." The GOP leadership's acid-laced rhetoric shows that Congress' planned hearings will quickly devolve into witch-hunts, not an impartial investigation to take them wherever the facts lead them. It should be no surprise, then, that opinion polls show the public so overwhelmingly opposed to congressional hearings on Elian's return to his father.

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