Notes on Reno

When Attorney General Janet Reno announced last week she would not appoint an independent counsel to investigate campaign finance abuses in the Clinton administration, the worst her critics could come up with was that the decision was based upon a too-narrow application of the law.

Now, with the timely — for yellow-dog Democrats — or tardy — for everyone else — release of memos detailing those infamous White House coffees, coupled with Reno’s obfuscating, muddled and illogical testimony before a House committee Tuesday, the attorney general’s detractors are free to amend their complaint. A narrow application? Forget about it. Try non-existent.

These 200 pages of notes, taken in 1995 and 1996, surfaced Monday, months after Congress subpoenaed the administration for all relevant documents about fund raising. They are at once an example of the tedious obsession those in power have with recording every banality and of the revolting cynicism rampant at the top.

One page, written in October 1996, relates a conversation between two senior staff members. Will the influence peddling cause problems, one asks. Not to worry, says the other. The election will be over before anyone can do anything about it.

During a discussion on abuses, then-Chief of Staff Leon Panetta chuckles that the coffees “certainly will move campaign finance reform forward.” On another occasion, Panetta decribes an upcoming fund-raiser as “one of those events where people come through the back door.”

No one at the White House has been able to explain the meaning of that remark, but the citizenry can rightfully assume any circumstance that conjures up images of wealthy special interests skulking around the alley behind 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. does not bode well.

And the citizenry can rightfully be appalled that the White House senior staff is concerned not with ethics, but with just making it to election day, that a chief of staff believes those who manufacture sleaze should be thanked for making everyone aware of the unpleasantness of sleaze.

Of course, the Republicans do it, too. But the Democrats run the White House and taking the lumps comes with the territory. The attorney general can’t change the world, but she can change her mind and appoint an independent counsel. She can send a message that those who seek to lead must be held to a higher standard.

There is no doubt at this point that Janet Reno is a stalwart employee. Clearly, she’s happy to fall on her sword for the boss. Now, if she’d just realize who’s the boss.

That, of course, would be the public. A public sickened by the sale of their government to the highest bidder, by dozens of Clinton cronies pleading the Fifth, by impoverished Buddhist nuns being used as conduits for illegal contributions, by tapes and documents miraculously appearing after the fact, by the incessant arm-twisting, back-slapping and deal-cutting, by the sham, the charade, the stonewalling.

It’s no wonder some 30 percent of Americans, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, believe the most profound legacy of the Clinton presidency will be the diminishing of the presidency. Reno could help reverse that if she’d just wake up and smell the coffee.