Washington Diary Andreas Frew reports from the heady heights of Capitol Hill

摘要

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt hasn't been seen much in Washington lately. Some attribute this to the fact that, like his boss President Clinton, he's under investigation by a special prosecutor. The question is whether Babbitt was improperly influenced in his decision to allow an Indian gambling casino to be built. So Babbitt has been doing what any smart bureaucrat does when he's in trouble—staying out of town. He can disappear more easily than most cabinet members, since he's in charge of national parks and wildernesses. And he can keep the topic nice and safe, extolling the values of nature and the importance of protecting wildlife. That's the theme he struck this month while deep within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee. Something mysterious is killing the world's frogs, Babbitt warned, and might someday start in on us. It's hard to start an argument over that.