Janet Reno As Communicator

Speaking with TJ Walker, the show where we dissect how and what world class leaders communicate.

Janet Reno is dead at age 78. She was the nation's first Attorney General. I think she's kind of a fascinating case study of someone's image, how they speak, the value of consistency, the value of not trying to change. I mean, she is sort of an example of what people think of as not media trained. I don't think that's an accurate example of what media training is or isn't. But for those of you unfamiliar, Janet Reno was someone who came across as very straight laced, never, never full of hyperbole, not somebody with the slick sound bite. She was always in one of her thousand plus briefings, quick to say, I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.

Now those of you who've listened to.

Me regularly know I don't really recommend saying I can't comment or no comment. But when you do it so regularly in such a bland, boring way, it does send a message to the media that you're serious, you're not playing games you're not going to use for political purposes. Leaks, partial leaks of investigations by a law enforcement agency. Now the thing about Janet Reno is she always basically looked the same and sounded the same. Now you could say the same about Ronald Reagan. Kept the same hairstyle for 50 plus years, looked the same, same weight, same, same clothing. You could say about Reagan same as, as Janet Reno. Now I'm not trying to be one of these cute, clever Saturday Night Live Will Ferrell types making fun of her. I'm not saying that to have fun at her or to be sexist and talk about her looks in any sort of demeaning way. I actually mean it as a compliment in that she was consistent, it was a consistent image and it helped sell the message that she was honest, straightforward, factual by the books, not here to play games. And that struck the right tone for, for the Attorney General for her time. Now those of you who don't remember the context, what happened was Bill Clinton was elected president and the first couple of nominees had problems with nannies. They had not paid their Social Security tax on nannies. There was a big brouhaha. So finally on about their, I don't know, it seemed like third, fourth, fifth pick Janet Reno was selected. Now there was no pre existing close personal relationship or political relationship between Janet Rito and Bill Clinton at the time. But at this point he was getting somewhat desperate and there was sort of a tacit acknowledgment that he would pick a Female attorney general. And there just weren't that many attorney general lawyers with the credentials to be attorney general who are female, who never had kids. So a part of her own personal biography is believed by many and is believed by me to have played a large role in her selection. Now, she came from Miami. She actually was born in Florida in the Everglades. That was very much a part of her image. Had been a prosecutor in Miami and had a reputation as being tough on crime. By the book, a no nonsense, almost non political politician because the state attorney's position she was in was an elected position. But think back in time. If you're Bill Clinton elected in 92, 93, the whole perception of the democratic party back then was weak on crime.

Don't care about criminals, let criminals run around rampant.

That was the perception, the political stereotype put out there by the opponents. That was constantly an issue for democrats at every level to fight. Janet Reno seemed to be the perfect one for that image. She also had just a reputation of being above board, being honest, filled with integrity. I, I never knew Janet Reno. I lived in Florida for many years, some of the same years she was there. Interestingly, my first boss in Florida, a guy named Gerald Lewis, who was a statewide elected official. I went down to work with him in 86. He had been a law partner with Janet Reno back in the 60s. And he always talked about how she was stable, straightforward, always there for you, trouble with family, other personal issues.

She was there, she was a rock. So I never heard anything but good.

Things about Janet Reno as a person.

As a lawyer, as a politician.

So she's getting a lot of good press today because she was the first female attorney general. Also, she was the longest attorney general we've ever had. I mean, she served pretty much every day of the Clinton administration.

Very different from a lot of people, and you could say a lot of.

Men because only men served in that position. She was never somebody who said, hmm, let me serve my first couple of.

Years, get enough experience, build my rolodex and then go out on K street and make 1, 2, 3, $5 million a year as a lobbyist and as a big rainmaker for a law firm. By all accounts, she had absolutely no.

Interest in money, in toys, you know.

Part of her image. Again, some of you may think I'm picking on that.

I'm simply analyzing the facts and how it benefited her.

But she was known for wearing basically sort of a big boxy blue dress, not into style, Certainly didn't always had the same haircut.

Same glasses, was not somebody interested in.

The high life and fancy cars, big mansions, any of that. She lived a very simple life because of that. Being attorney general was not a stepping stone in her view. It was the absolute best possible job. By all accounts, she enjoyed the work, was a complete workaholic, and worked incessantly, pretty much every waking moment for eight years now. She did go on to run for governor after she left office. She lost the Democratic primary to Bill McBride, who's someone I had met, and he once gave a contribution to a nonprofit of mine and nice guy, but he also did not get to be governor. Florida. So Janet Reno's speaking skills didn't really help her out on the stump as a political candidate at the statewide level of Florida, but I would argue did help her as attorney general. If you watch national politics, attorney generals are under fire constantly. And she definitely was the point of controversy, specifically early in her administration when the Branch Davidians took over their compound in Waco. And after 56 days, she authorized the FBI to go in because of allegations of child abuse. And the Branch Davidians lit the whole thing on fire, blew it up. Children were killed, people were killed. And a lot of people to this day still are angry with Janet Reno for that issue. But she didn't resign. She didn't run away. She stayed in the office. And she did it in a very consistent way, always speaking in straightforward earnest. She's sort of the classic paragon of the nerdy, smart, intellectual Harvard Law School graduate who's going to do everything, by the way, book, almost like a school marm. Again, I apologize if that sounds sexist to anyone, but there are different archetypes in play here. Now, one thing a lot of people give her credit for, and I do as well, is her ability to laugh at herself. Will Ferrell, the famed comedian who was then a star on Saturday Night Live, actually had a Janet Reno dance party thing, which was just bizarre. She's Will Ferrell's dressed up, hair, makeup, dressed to look like Janet Reno. He had done this on about three occasions, and the last time he did it, the real Janet Reno pops through the door, participates, and there you see fake Janet Reno next to real Janet Reno on Saturday Night Live. And I remember seeing it live. I've seen clips of it in the last day or so. It was funny and it showed she could laugh at herself. Now, a lot has been made today of the fact that 15 years later, it seems sexist and ridiculous for a woman to have to be mocked and ridiculed for her appearance on a show like Saturday Night Live essentially for just being tall. Will Ferrell has said as much. It's just, you know, she's six foot one. That's tall for a woman. And that was the object of mockery. You could say it's unfair. But it did happen. And I think she handled it the best way she possibly could. Now, when it comes to her legal legacy, there is a very mixed record there. Now, folks, this is not a primarily political talk show, so I'm going to just glance on this briefly. I do think that her a particular style of always by the book, straightforward, taking every single allegation as seriously as any others, the desire to always appear to be beyond the appearance of conflict of interest, set her up and frankly set up the Clinton administration to be played by their enemies. And when you look at how she was essentially played to expand the Whitewater investigation, bring in Ken Starr, open up that can of worms and give carte blanche to Republican enemies of Clinton, I think by true scholars of the Justice Department, her administration is going to be viewed as a disaster. But I'll leave that to the legal scholars. On another day, on another podcast. When it comes to her sheer ability to communicate, her ability to project an image and be authentic, I give Janet Reno very high marks. She was never gimmicky. She didn't let image consultants remake her. She struck many people, even her enemies, as a paragon of authenticity, sincerity and honesty. And she did it with what she said. She did it with how she said it. She did it with how she looked and her style. It all worked perfectly in sync. And I think that is in part how she will be remembered. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. Now, today is election day. Believe me, I have not. I sound like Donald Trump. Believe me, I have not forgotten that. Like many of you, I've been fascinated by this election, also profoundly disgusted at many levels. Nonetheless, at least the active campaigning and voting and vote counting part of this campaign is going to be over in a few hours. I'll be analyzing all of the election night speeches. So I'll record that late tonight, late Tuesday, and I'm recording this Monday. But I'm going to be recording that late Tuesday night. That will go out 12:30am normal time for those of you who are regular podcasts, listeners and downloaders. So you'll have my full analysis of really any interesting concession speech or victory speech from election night. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. See you tomorrow.

Thanks for listening to speaking with T.J. walker.