Christopher Resigns, Is Lauded by Clinton

By PAUL RICHTER and TYLER MARSHALL

Nov. 8, 1996 12 AM PT

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TIMES STAFF WRITERS

WASHINGTON — President Clinton bade a formal adieu to Warren Christopher on Thursday and praised the “steely determination” of his secretary of State as he hinted broadly that he might add Republicans to his Cabinet to help carry out a centrist second-term agenda.

Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Federico Pena and Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich tendered their resignations, and Ambassador to Japan Walter F. Mondale joined the exodus.

At the same time, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, though criticized by some White House aides as not always in step with Clinton’s best interests, indicated that she hopes to stay in her post.

In a White House ceremony, Clinton said that he accepted Christopher’s resignation “with great regret . . . but deep gratitude for his service to our administration and to our country. For all Secretary Christopher’s skills at defusing crises, I believe his lasting legacy was built behind the headlines, laying the foundations for our future.”

Clinton said that he wanted to “cast a wide net” in the search to replace Christopher and other departing Cabinet members. One message from Tuesday’s election results, he said, was a desire by the American people for greater cooperation across the political divide.

“They like it when we try to have principled compromise and they want us to create a vital center that is not one that just splits the difference but one that moves the country forward in an aggressive way, Republicans and Democrats alike,” he said.

“And I will be looking, in all these personnel decisions that I have to make, across a broad span of American people to try to get the best people to create that vital center and take this country into the 21st century.”

Clinton’s remarks fueled speculation that he might dip into Republican ranks for a new secretary of State. One possibility is Indiana Sen. Richard G. Lugar, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The president’s comments also pointed up the countervailing pressures he faces in trying to replenish his rapidly shrinking Cabinet.

He has good, practical reasons to seek centrist candidates, including Republicans. The new Senate, which must confirm his nominees, will be more Republican, more conservative and--in the case of some committees--probably more pugnacious than the one that Clinton has had to deal with for the last two years.

Moderate Choices

More than that, moderate choices may be more closely in tune with the goals that Clinton has been talking about for this term.

But while he is moving in this direction, according to administration aides and Democrats on Capitol Hill, the president cannot afford to lose sight completely of his first-term goal of a Cabinet that, in its racial and gender diversity, “looks like America.”

One administration aide said that Clinton could afford to lay somewhat less emphasis on this goal, since he already has set records for Cabinet appointments of women and minority officials, including judges. Besides, he no longer faces the pressure of reelection.

At the same time, a Democratic Senate aide predicted that if the Cabinet becomes suddenly too white and too male, “the Republicans are going to really needle him about it.” And if the Cabinet begins to look like those of George Bush or Ronald Reagan, Clinton’s Republican predecessors, he may hear complaints from the Democratic base--and from officials inside the administration as well.

Some Possibilities

Four of the departing Cabinet secretaries--Christopher, Reich, Defense Secretary William J. Perry and Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor--are white. But the administration will also lose Pena, who is Latino, and Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary, who is black.

Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, who is also Latino, faces an investigation for payments he made to his mistress and he too is expected to leave. And last year Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, an African American, was replaced by Dan Glickman, who is white.

Jesse Brown, head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, who is black, is expected to remain. And, sources said, Clinton may name Rep. Bill Richardson (R-N.M.), a Latino, to replace O’Leary.

Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.) said that Democratic leaders in the Senate are urging Clinton to seek “good, moderate candidates. But I don’t think he has to be advised of that.”

Republicans Pushed

One senior Democrat confided that he had encouraged Clinton to consider picking a Republican for the State Department job, arguing that the move would be well received by the public and would improve the president’s relations with the Senate in an important policy area.

In Lugar’s case, it would also leave a Democratic governor to choose a Senate successor, a move that could reduce the Republicans’ majority in the upper house. Maine Republican Sen. William S. Cohen, who will retire from the Senate this year, also has been mentioned as a candidate for secretary of State as well as for director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

U.N. ambassador Madeleine Albright and former Sen. George J. Mitchell of Maine are considered the leading candidates within Clinton’s own party, although some aides said that Albright’s chances seem to be diminishing in recent days.

Clinton, paying tribute to his departing secretary of State, specifically credited Christopher’s “steely determination” with rescuing the Dayton peace negotiations on Bosnia from collapse late last year and praised his broader contribution to the administration, including directing the 1992 transition team and chairing the search committee for Clinton’s running mate.

Family Matters

Elsewhere in the Cabinet, Reich announced that he was resigning as Labor secretary to spend more time with his wife and two sons, who moved back to their Boston home last year so that she could resume her career as a law professor at Northeastern University.

Reno told reporters that “as I’ve said all along, if the president wanted me to stay, I would be honored to do so.” Asked about reports that some White House aides do not regard her as “a team player” because she has too readily referred allegations of high-level administration misconduct to independent counsels, Reno said:

“Nobody has been critical to my face or critical as a source that I can trace. I have been supported in trying to do what I think an attorney general should do, which is call the issues based on the evidence and the law and give the best legal advice that she or he can.”

Reno, who disclosed last year that she has a mild form of Parkinson’s disease, reiterated Thursday that her health is not a factor. She said her doctors told her recently “that they didn’t see any reason why I couldn’t serve.” She said that she continues to enjoy boating and hiking.

Times staff writers Sonni Efron in Tokyo and Robert L. Jackson in Washington contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Going or Staying?

The status of President Clinton’s Cabinet members and other key officials in a second term:

POST: *Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta

GOING

****

POST: *Secretary of State Warren Christopher

GOING

****

POST: *Defense Secretary William J. Perry

GOING