Lewis, Ann

THE WASHINGTON POST WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1995 (ews, IN THE LOOP A Nominee of Peculiar Qualifications communications director despite his assertions to By Al Kamen Washington Post Staff Writer colleagues he doesn't want the job. It's no secret inside the White House that several f anybody tells you the Age of Miracles is over, of them also hope he doesn't get the job. don't believe it. A miracle of sorts has happened Longtime Democratic liberal activist Ann Lewis is at the White House: President Clinton has the other main contender, an odd choice for an agreed to fill a key vacancy on the D.C. federal administration trying not to appear to be liberal. appeals court with a nominee who fails to meet Following the usual Clinton White House routine, almost every one of the key criteria once thought various factions are lobbying for each of the essential for administration jobs. candidates but the hope remains that by the time The nominee is a white male. He did not go to current communications director Mark Gearan Georgetown University. He did not graduate from Yale leaves to head the Peace Corps, one of the two will Law School. He was not a Rhodes scholar with Clinton be in place. or at any time. He is not from Arkansas. He is not a Renaissance Weekender. He is not a Democratic Too Friendly to a Foe? activist, big contributor or former officeholder. He is not an FOB (now there'sa word that hasn't Eyebrows were arched all around town yesterday been used in a while) and some say he's hardly even over Commerce Undersecretary for International met Clinton-though Clinton is aware of his work: Trade Jeffrey E. Garten's speech in Japan calling for Despite all that, Washington lawyer and now a new detente with Japan on trade. A senior administration official said Commerce principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who attended Harvard College Secretary Ronald H. Brown, U.S. Trade and Law School, is Clinton's pick for the seat vacated Representative Mickey Kantor and the White House a year ago by White House counsel Abner J. Mikva. were all busy distancing themselves from Garten's One reason for the odd selection may be that comments, which the official said "do not reflect the virtually everyone who meets the Clinton criteria administration's position on trade policy"-which has either already has a job in the administration or has a been increasingly hard-line. life and doesn't want an administration job. Garten, who is said to have strayed from the party A more important reason is that the 42-year-old line before, was quoted as telling foreign Garland, who clerked for then-Supreme Court Justice correspondents in Tokyo on Monday that his bid for a William J. Brennan Jr. and was a federal prosecutor new approach wasn't intended as an official policy here, has some strong backers, particularly Deputy switch. That apparently didn't make anyone here any Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick. Mikva is also happier. said to be high on Garland, who clerked at the Garten, a key player in the recent auto appeals court level for Judge Henry J. Friendly in negotiations with Japan, has long been rumored to be New York. leaving the administration-almost from the day he Most recently, Garland has been overseeing the arrived two years ago. This is likely to rekindle those federal investigation and prosecution efforts in the rumors. Oklahoma City bombing. Word is that this pick has been successfully run by Beyond the Beltway and on the Air Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Former Missouri lieutenant governor Harriett Hatch (R-Utah). White House folks want to get the Woods, the first woman elected to statewide office nomination up to Hatch before the August recess if there and more recently president of the National possible. Women's Political Caucus, is going back to St. Louis The Garland move clears the way for the to host a Sunday morning call-in show on KMOX nomination of Peter Edelman, a longtime Clinton radio. The same station carries Rush Limbaugh friend and now counselor to Health and Human every day. Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala, to a vacancy Woods, who lost two races in an effort to come to on the U.S. District Court here. Edelman had been Washington as a senator, will be replaced by Anita Clinton's choice for the appeals court seat, but the Perez Ferguson, a former Democratic National GOP-controlled Senate was deemed unlikely to have Committee official who also lost two congressional gone along. Some more checks need to be made, but bids in Ventura County, Calif., and is now White the expectation is that Edelman's name could go up House liaison at the Department of Transportation. with Garland's-although one source said this was not specifically a "package deal." A New Posting in Cultural Affairs Meanwhile Garland had been the pick to be named assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal When last we left William McSweeney, he was not division, so that post remains wide open. You know going to be on the U.S. Postal Service board of anybody good for that, call Gorelick governors. But McSweeney, a combat infantryman in Korea, former journalist and then president of On Vacation, Pen in Hand Occidental International Corp., was at the White House last week wearing his war memorial There may be a lesson in this for White House commissioner hat. And he left via the West Wing, staffers thinking of taking a vacation, but Don Baer where he was sworn by Vice President Gore as a the vacationing head of the speechwriting operation, member of the board of trustees of the Kennedy has moved into contention to be White House Center.