Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 4, 1993 TAG: 9304040053
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
JUSTICE NOMINEE DEFERS TO RENO
Arkansan Webster Hubbell - President Clinton's golfing partner and nominee to become the new associate attorney general - says there should be no doubt who's the boss at the Justice Department."She's in charge," he said, flopping his left hand toward the office of Attorney General Janet Reno.
"If you knew this lady like I've grown to know her - and you will - you'll know . . . nobody can control her. Nor would anybody want to," he said last week. "She's her own woman."
And Hubbell is Clinton's man. Actually, he's the Clintons' man.
Hubbell met them in 1973, when all three were taking the Arkansas bar exam.
The former Little Rock mayor and chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court accompanies Clinton on his last-minute Christmas Eve shopping treks. He drafted Clinton's ethics-in-government package and helped the governor get it approved by Arkansas voters in 1988.
But he is even closer to first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former partner in the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. Until recently, Hubbell was managing partner of the firm that she joined in 1977, four years after Hubbell.
Hubbell, 45, helped the president in his unsuccessful 1974 race for Congress and his successful bid for state attorney general in 1976.
As a teen-ager, he passed up an academic scholarship at Dartmouth to accept a football scholarship at the University of Arkansas, where he was the star offensive tackle on the team that won the 1968 Sugar Bowl.
After earning a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, he was drafted by the Chicago Bears, but rejected the offer to pursue a law degree, which he also got from the University of Arkansas.
He has grown into a soft-spoken lawyer with a squeaky-clean reputation in Arkansas. And now, he is the president's choice for the Justice Department's No. 3 post.
Reno said he's also her choice in announcing his nomination Friday.