BY MEG LAUGHLIN

 Dario Moreno's telephone has been ringing off the hook for the past few days.

 ''I hardly have time to catch my breath,'' says Moreno, a political science professor
 at Florida International University.

 ''Everyone wants a comment about the attitude of Miami's elected officials over
 the Elian controversy.''

 The ''everyone'' Moreno refers to is journalists from around the country, and the
 world. He has talked to dozens of reporters -- from ABC, BBC, AP, Reuters,
 The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Irish Times, The Philadelphia
 Enquirer, The St. Petersburg Times and on and on.

 Why?

 Because in January 1998 Moreno appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes and made a
 comment that a lot of people remember. It was: ''Miami has some of the
 characteristics of a Third World Banana Republic.''

 And in light of Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas' pronouncement that the county
 would not offer police help to immigration officials if they tried to repatriate Elian
 Gonzalez, the callers want to know whether Moreno, who took a lot of local heat
 for his statement, now has something else to say, along the same lines.

 ''The embarrassing thing about it,'' says Moreno, ''is that something I regret
 saying now has me in demand because so many people outside of Miami
 see it as applicable.''

 HE WAS REGRETFUL

 Moreno says he subsequently regretted saying it because ''it sounded so
 anti-Cuban, so anti-Latin'' when he meant it to simply describe the ''political
 corruption and silliness in Miami that crosses all ethnic lines.''

 But regardless of his intent, it was a statement that caught on and has him in
 demand now.

 The ''Banana Republic'' label showed up in a Saturday New York Times story that
 quoted a Miami attorney saying that ''everyone refers to Miami as that Banana
 Republic.''

 The Times story also quoted a local law professor comparing Penelas' stand to
 that of segregationist southern politicians who, in the 1950s, defied federal orders
 to escort African-American students into all-white schools.

 ''[It's] the most defiant position a public official has taken since the days of Orville
 Faubus,'' said David Abraham, a University of Miami law professor, referring to the
 Arkansas governor who refused to give police protection to an African-American
 student entering Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957.

 ''Comparisons like that are a far stretch,'' Penelas said Saturday. ''If federal
 officials move in to carry out an order to get Elian, we'll have a police presence
 there to keep order. We just won't send our SWAT team in to get him.''

 PENELAS CLARIFIES

 But if Penelas is saying that now, he was not saying it a few days ago, when
 Moreno started getting so many requests to talk about this ''Banana Republic.''

 Frank McNally from The Irish Times says he called Moreno because he wanted a
 quote to go in an article ''about the growing lack of sympathy around the country
 with the Cuban exile leadership in Miami.''

 Joel Achenbach from The Washington Post also called Moreno a few days ago,
 then wrote a column in which he called Miami ''politically out of control -- the
 mayor of Miami-Dade all but seceded from the union. . . .'' but he did not quote
 Moreno.

 Tim Nickens and Bill Adair of The St. Petersburg Times wrote a story with this
 headline: ''In the Elian vortex, politicians try to spin it their way.''

 They wrote about Penelas being on the ''hot seat'' and quoted Moreno predicting a
 split between Gore and Penelas. In fact, Gore split with the Clinton
 administration.

 On Wednesday, The Dallas Morning News quoted the head of the Center for
 International Policy in Washington who said ''the Cuban-American community in
 Miami has done themselves and their cause a great harm.'' On Thursday, The
 New York Post called the Cuban exiles determined to keep Elian in Miami an
 ''army of Cuban revolutionaries'' led by ''tanned politicians in sharp suits who
 control the local cops.''

 NEWS EDITORIALS

 An editorial in the Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia accused Miami Cubans
 of holding Elian hostage. The Boston Herald called the events in Miami ''very
 disturbing.'' The Atlanta Journal and Constitution described Miami as ''tense.''

 Employees at The Greater Miami Convention and Visitor's Bureau, which
 oversees tourism in Miami, have watched the cynicism and bad press increase
 around the country and are not happy about it.

 ''But,'' says the bureau's head, William D. Talbert, ''we've seen no ill effect to date
 -- at least not on the tourism industry.''

 The ill effect, says Moreno, has been within the community itself. Moreno says he
 is disappointed to see that the Elian controversy has marked ''the end of civic
 dialogue in Miami between most Cuban exiles and many who are not Cuban.

 ''After so much progress, we are backsliding -- circling the wagons and
 retrenching along old lines,'' he says.

 Last week, Moreno got into a shouting match over Elian with an ''Anglo colleague''
 at the FIU faculty club because Moreno thought his friend was being ''too
 simplistic in his approach.

 ''We all need to be careful,'' Moreno says. ''This issue is splitting this community
 in two.''

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald