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| GUTIERREZ: A 'lo siento' from 'el Gallito' |
They’re
usually less-than-sincere, and more motivated by some official’s desire that
the public stop talking about something perceived as a gaffe.
RARELY
ARE THE officials actually regretful that they said something stupid. They just
wish everybody else would agree with them instead of the other guy.
So
when I learned that soon-to-be retiring Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., was
apologetic Wednesday toward White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, I was skeptical.
Gutierrez,
who has used his decades of time in Congress to try to make himself the Voice
of Latinos across the nation rather than just in his Latino-enclave district in
Chicago, has been critical of Kelly for saying he opposes the demise of the
Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program.
The
program is meant to make it possible for young people who came to this country
without a valid visa to exist openly in this country. It is a part of the
Barack Obama presidential legacy that Donald Trump is most anxious to abolish.
GUTIERREZ
HAS SAID that Kelly, a former Marine Corps general, is “a hypocrite,” “mean”
and “a disgrace to the uniform he used to wear.”
Ouch!
But
on Wednesday, when Kelly met with several members of Congress to discuss the
future of DACA and immigration reform, the Chicago politico who has been
outspoken since his days as an alderman made a point of publicly apologizing
for his past rhetoric.
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| KELLY: Accepted the apology |
NOW
MAYBE GUTIERREZ wants to create the impression of being the bigger man in the
ongoing immigration debate.
But
one also has to consider that at that same meeting with congressmen, many of
whom were members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Kelly tried to give the
impression that all of his boss, Donald Trump’s, talk about demanding a barrier
be erected along the U.S./Mexico border before any talk of immigration reform or
DACA preservation could proceed was, to put it simply, cheap.
Now
one can argue the cliché “talk is cheap” applies to all government officials.
But
Kelly let it be known that, deep down, Trump knows that a border wall along the
1,900-mile stretch of desert separating the two nations is impractical. He even
told them they shouldn’t take it too seriously when Trump says he’s going to
force Mexico’s government to pay for the barricade that Trump insists will cut
off the flow of people headed northbound into the U.S.
TRUMP,
OF COURSE, continues to insist he really means it when he makes such threats.
In recent days, he has insisted that DACA will die, no matter how much it will
hurt young people who have established their lives in this country. And it’s
all the Democrats’ fault because they won’t go along with his wall talk.
Kelly,
however, said that Trump’s hostile talk during his 2016 presidential campaign
was that of an “uninformed” candidate, and that he is learning about the ways
of government. It’s that old argument we shouldn’t take Trump too seriously. Which
sounds much like the old line about Mayor Richard J. Daley’s inarticulate
manner of speaking when they said, “write what (Daley) means, not what he says.”
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| TRUMP: Who knows what he really means! |
Or
maybe he was just wanting to make sure Kelly didn’t wind up using him as an
excuse to later come back and shoot down some immigration deal, just because Gutierrez
once felt the need to be critical. Then again, anybody familiar with Chicago
politics throughout the years would know Luis didn’t get the nickname of El Gallito (the little rooster) by being
meek as a mouse!
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