Editorial: Reno makes right call on Gore

Friday, Nov. 27, 1998 | 11:39 a.m.

Attorney General Janet Reno really had no choice Tuesday. The facts dictated that she refuse ordering an independent counsel investigation of Vice President Al Gore. In her notification to a special federal court, Reno wrote that there is "clear and convincing" evidence Gore did not lie to Justice Department investigators last year about how a Democratic media fund was being financed.

"The evidence fails to provide any reasonable basis for a conclusion that the Vice President may have lied," Reno wrote. Reno should be praised for being able to look at the Gore case impartially, not bowing to the insistent demands by Republican congressional leaders to initiate a probe even if there was no evidence to support one.

Some Republicans, ignoring the facts of the case, were quick to pounce on Reno's decision. Even the thoroughly discredited Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., couldn't stop himself from criticizing Reno. "Once again, the attorney general has failed to follow the law," Burton said. "The attorney general has made it clear she is committed to protecting the president."

But Burton is way off base. If Reno in fact was so politically motivated to protect the Clinton administration, she sure has a strange way of demonstrating it. After all, it was Reno who authorized Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr to expand his probe into Clinton's Whitewater dealings to include the charges of misconduct involving Monica Lewinsky.

The more Republicans protest about Reno's decisions involving the appointment of independent counsels, especially in the case of Gore, the more it looks as if their motivations are the ones that are suspect. It seems as if they're bent on damaging Gore as much as possible because he likely will be the Democrats' strongest candidate for the presidential nomination in 2000.

It is hard to think of anyone besides Reno who would have the guts to stand up to the GOP leadership and do the right thing. Luckily for the taxpayers of this nation, she didn't launch an unneeded, multimillion-dollar inquiry to satisfy the bloodlust of some Republicans.