The Week

Attorney General Janet Reno said on Larry King Live that she was leaning neither for nor against naming an independent counsel to investigate her boss. Miss Reno has until December 3 to decide whether she will lean. If she’s not leaning by then, she has to face the tough decision whether to take another sixty days to think about whether to lean.

Sen. Fred Thompson (R., Tenn.)-another former actor with presidential hopes-limps from the spotlight. His hearings on campaign finance unearthed some new information and demonstrated why Janet Reno should appoint an independent counsel. But they failed because Thompson never saw them as political combat and theater in the way that Democrats did. In the interest of bipartisanship, he consented to a deadline which Democrats ruthlessly exploited. In the interest of fair-mindedness, he countenanced endless Democratic diversions into alleged GOP wrongdoing. In the interest of seriousness, he never invited any of the shady Clinton characters to take the Fifth before the TV cameras. Meanwhile, he never did more than grouse about White House stonewalling and lost the confidence of his fellow Republicans. Two thumbs down.

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Attorney General Janet Reno said on Larry King Live that she was leaning neither for nor against naming an independent counsel to investigate her boss. Miss Reno has until December 3 to decide whether she will lean. If she’s not leaning by then, she has to face the tough decision whether to take another sixty days to think about whether to lean.

Sen. Fred Thompson (R., Tenn.)-another former actor with presidential hopes-limps from the spotlight. His hearings on campaign finance unearthed some new information and demonstrated why Janet Reno should appoint an independent counsel. But they failed because Thompson never saw them as political combat and theater in the way that Democrats did. In the interest of bipartisanship, he consented to a deadline which Democrats ruthlessly exploited. In the interest of fair-mindedness, he countenanced endless Democratic diversions into alleged GOP wrongdoing. In the interest of seriousness, he never invited any of the shady Clinton characters to take the Fifth before the TV cameras. Meanwhile, he never did more than grouse about White House stonewalling and lost the confidence of his fellow Republicans. Two thumbs down.