
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 19, 1994                   TAG: 9401190146
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: San Antonio Express-News
DATELINE: AUSTIN, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Medium

CABINET CHOICE QUITS

Former CIA Deputy Director Bobby Inman withdrew Tuesday as President Clinton's nominee for defense secretary, blasting what he said were distortions of his record, character and reputation in a "new era of modern McCarthyism."

"I don't wish or intend to subject myself to that on a daily basis as a cost of trying to produce change," Inman told reporters.

Inman, who served Democratic and Republican administrations, said he asked the president to withdraw his nomination because of perceived GOP attempts to poke holes in his record during the Senate nomination process, set to begin next week.

President Clinton accepted Inman's resignation "with regret."

During a rambling, hour-long news conference, the retired four-star admiral said Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole and William Safire, a conservative columnist for The New York Times, had conspired to undermine his nomination. He also criticized an unidentified political columnist for the Boston Globe.

Told of Inman's charges while speaking to a business group on Columbia, S.C., Dole said he had been supporting the nomination.

But after Inman's news conference, Dole quipped: "He's probably not qualified to be secretary of defense, if he has fantasies like that."

It was widely believed that Inman would have sailed through his confirmation hearings to succeed Les Aspin as defense chief.

During his news conference, Inman told reporters, "What troubles me in this era of modern McCarthyism isn't the daily press." While the daily newspaper and television coverage of his nomination have been "extraordinarily fair," he continued, columnists have not.

Inman contended that Safire had been out to get him for more than a decade.

Inman also said his family was not enthusiastic about a return to public service. He said his wife asked him to promise that he protect a former domestic worker from embarrassment because the Inmans had not paid Social Security taxes on her wages.

The issue surfaced after Clinton nominated Inman to the post. Inman has paid $7,000 in back taxes, even though he said he does not believe he legally was required to do so.

by CNB