Count on a six-year-old kid to bring so many issues into such sharp focus.

In what can only be described as a miracle, Elian Gonzalez was found, on November 25th, 1999, clinging to an inner tube, after the boat carrying his mother and nine others sank on its way from Cuba to Florida. By agreement with Havana, once Elian reached the U.S., he would become eligible for permanent residency. The only thing to work out were the details as to who would care for the boy. Not to worry. He has relatives in Miami, and they immediately took him in.

The child of divorced parents, Elian had been in his mother's custody in Cuba. His father is remarried with a new baby, and works as a hotel porter near Havana. According to Elian's Miami relatives, the father was happy that the boy was in America. So far, so good.

Enter Fidel Castro, who was quick to seize an opportunity to make political capital, with his naive fellow travelers in the world media. By turning the issue into a simple custody battle, he has been able to generate sympathy for the father. What's more, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) ruled that Elian must be sent back to Cuba. Even the notion that his father come to the U.S. to be interviewed was dropped. The father, at first, expressed willingness to do just that, but changed his mind. Surely, Fidel had nothing to do with that...

There are many things wrong here.

To start, why do we continue to give ANY credibility to what Castro, the leader of brutal, repressive Stalinist regime has to say? Only in a country dominated by left-leaning media and over-schooled (if under-educated) fools, could the time of day be given to a man whose island country is so miserable, people are literally dying to leave!

Then, we endure this talk of the rights of the father. Funny, but I never seem to hear that refrain when a father is opposed to his child being aborted. Moreover, what kind of father is Juan Miguel Gonzalez? He cares so much about Elian that he left him, and he cares so much about Elian that he let him go on his perilous journey. Of course, maybe he was in favor of Elian escaping to Miami. Who knows? Maybe he was simply raised up as a false front by Castro. Maybe he means nothing to Elian.

How about the rights of the mother? Her dying wish was to get her son to the United States. What does THAT count for?

Where does the Left come off on behalf of parental rights, anyway? I thought it takes a village and day care, and the government, and all that. If the child were from the South Bronx, there would be little hesitancy to take him out of a broken home and into a "better life," courtesy of some overblown Federal program.

But wait. There's more.

What happened to the America that actually stands for something? If we believe that our system is better than Castro's, then letting a political exile stay here should be a no-brainer.

What happened was Bill Clinton. Aided and abetted by his incredible array of no-talent craven subordinates, this lame duck degenerate was able to pull yet another "in-your-face." He is not trying to appease Castro, or improve future relations between the U.S., and a post- Castro Cuba. He merely wants to anger people of good will, waxing confident that his hallelujah chorus will continue to defend the indefensible.

Who in his administration would counter him? Certainly not Janet Reno, the third choice for Attorney General, and definitely one of the worst ever to hold that office. And what did you expect from Doris Meissner, INS commissioner and career bureaucrat? Did you think that she would really take a courageous stand? The fix was in on this one.

But for all the negatives, this case does have a positive. It forced some Republicans to re-locate their guts. Representatives Lincoln Diaz- Balart and Dan Burton have subpoenaed Elian to appear before Congress.

"I want to make sure that Elian's rights are protected," Burton, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said in a statement. "I am concerned that without a ruling from the judges, Elian is without legal protection over the weekend. I am issuing this subpoena to provide a measure of legal protection while the court is considering this case."

It would be a wonderful start to the Millennium if the plight of a little Cuban exile put some cojones back into the opposition party.

Stranger things have happened.