Worst-Kept Secrets

By WALTER SHAPIRO LITTLE ROCK

AS AL GORE IS QUICKLY LEARNING, Vice Presidents get the hardest roles. At Bill Clinton's three press conferences last week, Gore was the final speaker after the new appointees thanked everyone from their children to Hillary Clinton for their elevation to high office. Still, it was a trifle bizarre when Gore remarked at last Thursday's initial press conference, "I'm glad the suspense is finally over."

What suspense? This was not exactly an Alfred Hitchcock production or the dramatic the-envelope-please moment at the Academy Awards. For nearly a week, the press had been accurately forecasting the precise lineup of the Clinton economic team. Typical was the Dec. 5 headline in the Washington Post: BENTSEN SOUGHT AS TREASURY CHIEF. The same article had Congressman Leon Panetta slated for Director of the Office of Management and Budget, even though Panetta spokesman Barry Toiv insists that the job was not even offered until last Tuesday.

The Clinton appointments process has sprung more leaks than a tramp freighter flying a flag of convenience. Almost every day there has been another name in the news linked to a likely job, such as former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The first question at Clinton's Thursday press conference was not about his economic team but whether General Colin Powell was in contention, as rumored, for Secretary of State. Sure, there have been a few wrong calls -- Carol Browner, and not former Vermont Governor Madeleine Kunin, was named to head the Environmental Protection Agency. There were also surprises -- almost no one predicted that Robert Reich would end up as Secretary of Labor, and few slated Donna Shalala for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Democratic national chairman Ronald Brown seemed headed for the United Nations, not Commerce. Like Brown, both Reich and Shalala were leaked as likely prospects for top jobs.

The early bruiting of Lloyd Bentsen's name looked like a textbook case of strategic leaking. How upset would liberals be over Bentsen's probusiness record, his ill-fated $10,000 breakfast club for favored campaign contributors and his off-again, on-again memberships in segregated clubs? The answer: not very. But before Bentsen -- the ultimate old-politics nominee -- was formally unveiled, the Clinton high command seemed to be hedging its bets by underlining its belief in affirmative action with this leaked story in the New York Times: CLINTON EXPECTED TO NAME WOMAN ATTORNEY GENERAL.

Top Clinton advisers deny any hand in releasing the strings on these trial balloons. "Jim Baker was a master at these calculated leaks," said a clearly envious Clinton aide. "But we're just not that good. Maybe we will be someday." In fact, senior transition officials at their morning meeting in Little Rock last Thursday actually discussed whether they should start orchestrating their own leaks before deciding that the risks outweighed the rewards. Both Clinton and transition director Warren Christopher are said to be "extraordinarily unhappy about what's going on with the leaks." But when asked whether a crackdown was planned, transition officials shrugged and said, in effect, "Democrats will always be Democrats."

The difficulty of controlling leaks from within the Clinton camp is that some of them are apparently coming from the putative nominees themselves. The logic behind this gambit is to lock in one's selection with the press before the President-elect has a chance to reconsider. Clinton advisers contrast the alacrity with which Bill Bradley took his name out of the vice-presidential race last summer with the New Jersey Senator's palpable eagerness to be considered for Secretary of State. Another proven reputation-enhancement tactic is to float your own name for a job for which you are not being considered. According to Clinton insiders, Senator Bob Kerrey tried this trick during the vice-presidential sweepstakes, and they suspect that deputy transition director Alexis Herman recently put herself forward for Secretary of Labor.

Clinton aides argue plaintively that there is almost no way to keep a secret, given the vetting process and political courtesy calls required for a major appointment. The Treasury choice, for example, was telegraphed in late November when Clinton called Texas Governor Ann Richards to discuss filling Bentsen's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat. Some in the Clinton camp fear that the two transition teams doing background checks may be the source of some leaks. The vetters are given the names of the nominees but not their positions. That may help explain why the press mistakenly speculated that Shalala, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, was headed for the Department of Education.

Still, there is an irresistible urge to detect a master plan amid the riddled texture of transition. Chalk it up to Clinton's honeymoon period, that halcyon interlude when disorder masquerades under the name of guile. But as long as there is no punishment for the natural human urge to share a secret by leaking, the Clinton selection process will continue to provide a new twist to the concept of open government.