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National Review, Sept 27, 1999

But at the time, Reno announced that she would take full responsibility for the debacle. This was bureaucratic sleight of word: No one lower down would have to take responsibility, because she had done so, but since she had no intention of resigning, she escaped it too. The latest revelation, however, requires us to hold her to account.

The government's handling of the Branch Davidians was marked by incompetence and ignorance. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms chose not to nab David Koresh on his visits into town, but to storm the Davidians in their citadel. When Koresh pleaded for time to finish a commentary on the Seven Seals (which are mentioned in the Book of Revelation), the FBI thought he was talking about sea creatures. Reno's obsession with child abuse, a theme of her tenure as state attorney in Miami, drove the besiegers on.

The years-long obfuscation about what was done--eerily parallel to other instances of Clinton-era stonewalling at the Justice Department--makes the situation worse. Officers of the law err, because they are human. But when they lie, they betray their trust. Most Americans naturally, and rightly, give cops the benefit of the doubt, especially in crisis standoffs with separatist cults. In every case, however, we are entitled to an accurate postmortem. When we don't get it, the foundations of order are corroded.

Janet Reno has presided over years of bungles and lies. It is grotesque that she should continue to occupy a position of authority.

Notes and Asides

Dear Mr. Buckley: You need not get software to find a third -gry word for Mary Wiltrakis (Aug. 9), simply because there is no third word. I quote master logologist Dr. Richard Lederer's wonderfully entertaining book, Word Circus (Merriman-Webster, 1998):

"The greatest service the Word Circus staff can perform is to announce that the -gry question is a time-wasting linguistic hoax. This poser first slithered onto the American scene in 1975 on the Bob Grant radio talk show on WMCA in New York City. Word mavens have tried to bury -gry, but it keeps rising, like some angry, hungry monstrosity from Tales from the Crypt."

Dr. Lederer goes on to list the obsolete and archaic words augry, begry, anhungry, aggry, puggry, and gry, but asserts that, angry and hungry aside, there are no common words ending in -gry.

Sincerely,

Lawrence P. O'Neil

Montgomery Village, Md.

Dear Mr. Buckley: Webster's Third New International Dictionary lists "ag- gry bead also ag-gri bead, noun, a variegated glass bead found buried in the earth in Ghana and in England."

Sincerely, J. Walter Lynch Athens, Ga.

Dear Mr. Buckley: My Webster's, 2nd edition, lists "aagry, adj., a blue bead of West African origin."

Ya don't need no compoota. Ciao, R. B. Crean Boone, N.C.

Dear Mr. Buckley: Concerning words which end in -gry and how to find them: Doubtless you have been swamped with responses on the subject, but I am going to answer anyway.

The "Dictionary & Thesaurus" of the Franklin MWD-440 Bookman handheld spell checker provides a search engine to find words ending in -gry.