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You are here: Home / Absent Friends / Rest in Peace, Janet Reno

Rest in Peace, Janet Reno

by Anne Laurie|  November 7, 20164:58 am| 35 Comments

This post is in: Absent Friends, Women's Rights Are Human Rights, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?

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Per ABC:

Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general and the epicenter of several political storms during the Clinton administration, has died. She was 78.

Reno died early Monday from complications of Parkinson’s disease, her goddaughter Gabrielle D’Alemberte said. D’Alemberte said Reno spent her final days at home in Miami surrounded by family and friends.

Reno, a former Miami prosecutor who famously told reporters “I don’t do spin,” served nearly eight years as attorney general under President Bill Clinton, the longest stint in a century.

One of the administration’s most recognizable and polarizing figures, Reno faced criticism early in her tenure for the deadly raid on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, where sect leader David Koresh and some 80 followers perished.

She was known for deliberating slowly, publicly and in a typically blunt manner. Reno frequently told the public “the buck stops with me,” borrowing the mantra from President Harry S. Truman…

In the spring of 2000, Reno enraged her hometown’s Cuban-American community when she authorized the armed seizure of 5-year-old Elian. The boy was taken from the Little Havana home of his Miami relatives so he could be returned to his father in Cuba.

After leaving Washington, Reno returned to Florida and made an unsuccessful run for Florida governor in 2002 but lost in a Democratic primary marred by voting problems.

The campaign ended a public career that started amid humble beginnings. Born July 21, 1938, Janet Wood Reno was the daughter of two newspaper reporters and the eldest of four siblings. She grew up on the edge of the Everglades in a cypress and brick homestead built by her mother and returned there after leaving Washington. Her late brother Robert Reno was a longtime columnist for Newsday on Long Island.

After graduating from Cornell University with a degree in chemistry, Reno became one of 16 women in Harvard Law School’s Class of 1963. Reno, who stood over 6 feet tall, later said she wanted to become a lawyer “because I didn’t want people to tell me what to do.”…

In 1995 Reno was diagnosed with Parkinson’s after noticing a trembling in her left hand. She said from the beginning that the diagnosis, which she announced during a weekly news conference, would not impair her job performance. And critics — both Republicans and Democrats — did not give her a pass because of it.

“Did not give her a pass” is a very genteel phrasing for the way she was treated, by Democratic should-have-been-allies as well as the Disloyal Opposition. If anyone deserved to see the first woman elected President, it was Janet Reno — I only hope she got the chance to vote early, because from everything I’ve heard it would have been important to her.

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Reader Interactions

35Comments

  1. 1.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 7, 2016 at 5:06 am

    We will never see her like again.

  2. 2.

    Arclite

    November 7, 2016 at 5:15 am

    R.I.P. Janet Reno. You were an inspiration to many, many women. Just like Hill this year, you were treated much worse than you deserved.

    Speaking of Hill, fuck you James Comey. Fuck you with a rusty nail.

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    November 7, 2016 at 5:18 am

    RIP, Ms. Reno.

  4. 4.

    Damien

    November 7, 2016 at 5:18 am

    Janet Reno deserved to live to Wednesday.
    Trump lives on, dripping racism from Cheeto-tinted gob.
    And people ask me how I can be an atheist.

  5. 5.

    Arclite

    November 7, 2016 at 5:18 am

    Also, good morning Rikyrah. I was rude the other day, and apologize.

    Also, too, I’m off to bed, so good night. -_-

  6. 6.

    Xenos

    November 7, 2016 at 5:30 am

    The whole Elian story was a clear sign that the GOP base had lost its sanity, before we saw all the other craziness in the 00s.

    I admire Janet Reno even more in retrospect – she thought through the issues, came to a principled and rational conclusion, and stuck to her guns in spite of hysteria and madness. A weaker soul would have allowed even more mischief during the WJC years.

  7. 7.

    Mary G

    November 7, 2016 at 5:37 am

    She took an avalanche of shit from the right wing and still got her job done, just like Hillary will. Rest in peace.

  8. 8.

    Nicole

    November 7, 2016 at 5:45 am

    Great article about her from 1995. The last couple of paragraphs especially moved me.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/govt/admin/stories/reno012598.htm

  9. 9.

    Tokyokie

    November 7, 2016 at 5:53 am

    I never understood why she wasn’t more conspicuously admired than she was, although I suspect it was because she seemed devoid of self-aggrandizement. She was thoughtful, firm, and utterly honest, qualities that are supposed to be admirable in attorneys general, but she was a physically imposing and intensely private woman, and so she wasn’t. I, too, wish she could have lived a few more days, much as I felt about Studs Turkel eight years ago, but I hope, like Turkel, she voted early before she died.

  10. 10.

    satby

    November 7, 2016 at 5:53 am

    She was positively abused by the right wing, as was Hillary Clinton. I never forgave Rush Limpdick for the crack about Chelsea Clinton being the daughter of Reno and Hillary.

    RIP Ms. Reno.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    November 7, 2016 at 6:04 am

    Reno was an amazing woman, and I admired her a great deal. Her parents were incredibly interesting folks too; reading about them, you come to understand how they raised such a daughter.

    Reno liked to tell the story about riding out Hurricane Andrew in the house her mother built at the edge of the Everglades. Her mother was elderly and unwell then, and Reno said that at the height of the storm, she questioned the wisdom of her decision to ride the storm out with a frail old lady. But the house held up fine while newer homes in developments were destroyed.

  12. 12.

    Honus

    November 7, 2016 at 6:46 am

    This New Yorker article about Reno hanging out with handsome Dick Manitoba is one of my favorites:
    https://www.google.com/amp/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/10/01/aunt-janny/amp

  13. 13.

    Vhh

    November 7, 2016 at 7:31 am

    @satby:John McCain told that joke. The yellow stain remains to this day.

  14. 14.

    ThresherK

    November 7, 2016 at 7:42 am

    Has Fox filed any stories about Dems politicizing Reno’s funeral yet?

    Classy lady, great at her job, and another woman “made of steel” simply to brush off the shit flung at her for getting where she’d gotten.

  15. 15.

    SectionH

    November 7, 2016 at 8:42 am

    I’m in a puddle of tears. It’s not just Janet, but it is too.

    PD is a horrible horrible thing.

    If Janet was holding up in public even for a few years with PD – which she must have been – bless her and I admire her even more.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    November 7, 2016 at 8:43 am

    Buh-bye, Trolly McHomophobe-Bigotsworth. (Placing this here for anyone who may have replied to a comment I just drop-kicked into the sun.)

  17. 17.

    SectionH

    November 7, 2016 at 8:47 am

    Thanks to whichever FPer was on to delete the abominably nasty post that was up for a minute. As Jim Wright has popularized: These Fucking People.

    ETA: Betty, yeah, thank you!

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    November 7, 2016 at 8:48 am

    @SectionH: She was diagnosed in 1995. I think complications of the disease cost her the Democratic nomination for FL governor in the early aughts — it was an extremely close race (less than a percentage point), and she’d suffered a blackout at a political event, IIRC. The Democrats nominated a milquetoast nonentity (IMO) instead, and went on to lose to the horrid Jeb Bush. Reno was tough as hell. She’ll be missed and mourned. Sounds like your aunt was a helluva woman too. I am sorry for your loss.

  19. 19.

    low-tech cyclist

    November 7, 2016 at 8:52 am

    R.I.P., Janet Reno.

    Yeah, she was the first target of the professional right-wing shitstorm generators, who all truly deserve a special hell. She carried out her responsibilities with integrity, despite all the vileness thrown her way.

    Parkinson’s sucks, and kudos to her for fighting it for so long. It finally took my dad down last year, after a decade-long battle.

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    November 7, 2016 at 9:00 am

    Rest in peace, Janet Reno. You surely deserve it. Parkinson’s for 20 years. That’s a long time.

  21. 21.

    Ken

    November 7, 2016 at 9:05 am

    @ThresherK:

    Has Fox filed any stories about Dems politicizing Reno’s funeral yet?

    We could start a pool: Which right-wing nutcase will be the first to claim Clinton had Reno silenced because she knew too much?

    Except it’s probably too late for a pool – I’m sure it’s already happened.

  22. 22.

    SectionH

    November 7, 2016 at 9:05 am

    @Betty Cracker: Thanks, she was too. She was somebody in Education. Which I’m not entirely aligned with (she was a Credentialist, I’m not.) But she always insisted that schools meet accreditation standards, NOT that the standards should be changed). I think she was diagnosed with PD about 1999. She was mostly fine for another decade, died at 87 with us at home, a liberal Democrat all the way.

  23. 23.

    Ben Mays

    November 7, 2016 at 9:10 am

    Janet Reno Dance Party!!!
    http://www.newnownext.com/wp-content/uploads/backlot/2013/11/PHO-10Sep21-253368.jpg

  24. 24.

    louc

    November 7, 2016 at 10:31 am

    My SIL worked for Reno at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. She loved and admired her and I understand just about everyone who worked in that office did. As a former Floridian, I always admired her forthrightness and integrity.

  25. 25.

    Scotian

    November 7, 2016 at 10:35 am

    R.I.P Janet Reno, one of the better USAGs I’ve seen from the US in my watching your politics for over 40 years. That she was the first woman to hold the job only underscores just how remarkably competent and excellent she was, because all first women in major power/authority positions wherever we are talking about get there by extreme competence. She was a woman of grace, competence, and courage, and I’m sorry she didn’t get to see President Hillary Clinton, truly a shame.

  26. 26.

    liberal

    November 7, 2016 at 10:39 am

    F*ck that. She was one of the people who jumped on board the daycare sexual abuse hysteria.

  27. 27.

    Persia

    November 7, 2016 at 10:50 am

    @Xenos:

    The whole Elian story was a clear sign that the GOP base had lost its sanity, before we saw all the other craziness in the 00s.

    Yeah, the ‘how very dare a father want to raise his son’ thing was…I guess horrifying isn’t actually too strong a word.

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    November 7, 2016 at 10:53 am

    @liberal: Classy!

  29. 29.

    Scotian

    November 7, 2016 at 11:44 am

    @liberal:

    First stone cast I see…

  30. 30.

    JustRuss

    November 7, 2016 at 11:46 am

    Too bad SNL is so tight when it comes to Youtube, but here’s a partial grab of Reno’s appearance on Janet Reno’s Dance Party.

    Dance on, Janet!

  31. 31.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    November 7, 2016 at 1:20 pm

    She got to make out with Fox Mulder too.

  32. 32.

    chopper

    November 7, 2016 at 1:39 pm

    @liberal:

    i just want absolute perfect purity, is that so wrong?

  33. 33.

    liberal

    November 7, 2016 at 1:41 pm

    @chopper: Yeah. Not wanting people jailed during an ill-informed hysteria is “purity.”

    GFY.

  34. 34.

    Jumbo with a 76

    November 7, 2016 at 6:31 pm

    We can take heart that she’s moved on to the Dance Party in the sky.

  35. 35.

    Rob Occnor

    November 11, 2016 at 2:08 pm

    Please take the time to listen to a heart filled memorial tribute to Janet Reno. I know that she is among kindred spirits.

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