Politics

Reno No More

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 21, 2001 / 8:42 AM EST / CBS

Like all the other Clinton cabinet members, Janet Reno has said goodbye.

Her beloved kayaks are heading back to Florida, her newly purchased red Ford pickup truck is gassed up, and her official portrait is hanging in the halls of Justice. The painting shows Janet Reno standing tall in a black dress, gazing almost expressionless. The nameplate reads, "Janet Reno of Florida, Administration of Clinton." The inscription says a lot about her: she was an outsider when she arrived in 1993, and leaves as one. And, if there's anything that caused her the most political headaches, it was the administration of Bill Clinton.

She unleashed investigations against fellow cabinet members, opened probes into the fundraising practices of both Bill Clinton and Al Gore, and expanded the Whitewater investigation of then-Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr to include the Monica Lewinsky scandal. She went from outsider to outcast.

Republicans tried to drive her out of office. They accused her of protecting the White House by not giving the campaign finance case to an outside counsel. Some demanded her resignation, chewed her out in hearing and after hearing, but Janet Reno and her staff hunkered down.

She was attorney general longer than anyone in modern times. She held 293 weekly "press availabilities" with reporters, but rarely made news, and rarely told you what she really thinks about the vitriol that's been heaped upon her. "I've stayed away from the legacy thing," Reno said at her last meeting with reporters, but did offer several observations:

Waco remains her most difficult moment. "I wish I would have not done what I did at Waco," she says referring to her decision to allow FBI tanks to storm the Branch Davidian complex in April of 1993, which led to the deaths of more than 80 people.
She continues to be concerned about the disproportionately large numbers of blacks and other minorities making their way onto the federal death row. Some of her aides fault Reno, a death penalty opponent, for not taking a stand now and pushing for a moratorium on executions until the disparity problem is fixed. "I think it is vitally important that we level that playing field in every way we can."
Reno strikes the same social worker cord when she talks about lowering the crime rate, something that has plummeted during her tenure. "The most important thing we can do in terms of fighting crime is to prevent it. And the most important way ... is to make sure we have children who are strong and healthy, who have equal opportunity at education and equal opportunity for decent housing."

On her last full day in office, Reno tried to cram in as much work as possible. What her critics don't understand is that she loved being attorney general. She is the law enforcement version of a policy wonk. Whether it's police radios that don't work in some small town, or the crumbling bricks in a ederal prison, or catching the spy, Reno was involved in every facet of running the department, which today is a sprawling bureaucracy of 130,000 people. It drove her staff crazy and led to her reputation has a terrible micro-manager. It also may be why she mishandled some of the big decisions, and was outmaneuvered on occasion by FBI Director Louis Freeh.

Instead of cashing in on the longest stint as attorney general in modern times, Janet Reno is going home to sit on her porch to rest awhile. She plans a 120-mile kayak trip in the Everglades to clear her head, and she told me she may write a book or two. But don't expect any kind of tell-all, or the untold story of the Justice Department during the Clinton administration. Janet Reno of Florida is taking her secrets home with her, leaving her portrait behind to keep us all wondering.