By DAVE HAMRICK
Managing Editor

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.

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