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Text File | 1993-04-08 | 6KB | 122 lines

                                                                                THE TRANSITION, Page 45

Worst-Kept Secrets


Clinton's transition team is leaking like a sieve, but there's
a little method in the madness

By WALTER SHAPIRO/LITTLE ROCK


    As Al Gore is quickly learning, Vice Presidents get the
hardest roles. At Bill Clinton's three press conferences last
week, Gore was the final speaker after the new appointees
thanked everyone from their children to Hillary Clinton for
their elevation to high office. Still, it was a trifle bizarre
when Gore remarked at last Thursday's initial press conference,
"I'm glad the suspense is finally over."

    What suspense? This was not exactly an Alfred Hitchcock
production or the dramatic the-envelope-please moment at the
Academy Awards. For nearly a week, the press had been accurately
forecasting the precise lineup of the Clinton economic team.
Typical was the Dec. 5 headline in the Washington Post: BENTSEN
SOUGHT AS TREASURY CHIEF. The same article had Congressman Leon
Panetta slated for Director of the Office of Management and
Budget, even though Panetta spokesman Barry Toiv insists that
the job was not even offered until last Tuesday.

    The Clinton appointments process has sprung more leaks
than a tramp freighter flying a flag of convenience. Almost
every day there has been another name in the news linked to a
likely job, such as former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros for
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The first question
at Clinton's Thursday press conference was not about his
economic team but whether General Colin Powell was in
contention, as rumored, for Secretary of State. Sure, there have
been a few wrong calls -- Carol Browner, and not former Vermont
Governor Madeleine Kunin, was named to head the Environmental
Protection Agency. There were also surprises -- almost no one
predicted that Robert Reich would end up as Secretary of Labor,
and few slated Donna Shalala for Secretary of Health and Human
Services. Democratic national chairman Ronald Brown seemed
headed for the United Nations, not Commerce. Like Brown, both
Reich and Shalala were leaked as likely prospects for top jobs.

    The early bruiting of Lloyd Bentsen's name looked like a
textbook case of strategic leaking. How upset would liberals be
over Bentsen's probusiness record, his ill-fated $10,000
breakfast club for favored campaign contributors and his
off-again, on-again memberships in segregated clubs? The answer:
not very. But before Bentsen -- the ultimate old-politics
nominee -- was formally unveiled, the Clinton high command
seemed to be hedging its bets by underlining its belief in
affirmative action with this leaked story in the New York Times:
CLINTON EXPECTED TO NAME WOMAN ATTORNEY GENERAL.

    Top Clinton advisers deny any hand in releasing the
strings on these trial balloons. "Jim Baker was a master at
these calculated leaks," said a clearly envious Clinton aide.
"But we're just not that good. Maybe we will be someday." In
fact, senior transition officials at their morning meeting in
Little Rock last Thursday actually discussed whether they should
start orchestrating their own leaks before deciding that the
risks outweighed the rewards. Both Clinton and transition
director Warren Christopher are said to be "extraordinarily
unhappy about what's going on with the leaks." But when asked
whether a crackdown was planned, transition officials shrugged
and said, in effect, "Democrats will always be Democrats."

    The difficulty of controlling leaks from within the
Clinton camp is that some of them are apparently coming from the
putative nominees themselves. The logic behind this gambit is
to lock in one's selection with the press before the
President-elect has a chance to reconsider. Clinton advisers
contrast the alacrity with which Bill Bradley took his name out
of the vice-presidential race last summer with the New Jersey
Senator's palpable eagerness to be considered for Secretary of
State. Another proven reputation-enhancement tactic is to float
your own name for a job for which you are not being considered.
According to Clinton insiders, Senator Bob Kerrey tried this
trick during the vice-presidential sweepstakes, and they suspect
that deputy transition director Alexis Herman recently put
herself forward for Secretary of Labor.

    Clinton aides argue plaintively that there is almost no
way to keep a secret, given the vetting process and political
courtesy calls required for a major appointment. The Treasury
choice, for example, was telegraphed in late November when
Clinton called Texas Governor Ann Richards to discuss filling
Bentsen's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat. Some in the Clinton
camp fear that the two transition teams doing background checks
may be the source of some leaks. The vetters are given the names
of the nominees but not their positions. That may help explain
why the press mistakenly speculated that Shalala, the chancellor
of the University of Wisconsin, was headed for the Department
of Education.

    Still, there is an irresistible urge to detect a master
plan amid the riddled texture of transition. Chalk it up to
Clinton's honeymoon period, that halcyon interlude when disorder
masquerades under the name of guile. But as long as there is no
punishment for the natural human urge to share a secret by
leaking, the Clinton selection process will continue to provide
a new twist to the concept of open government.