WASHINGTON INSIGHT / Campaign ’96

STRONG VOICE: Although Defense Secretary William J. Perry was widely dismissed when he took office as a technocrat with little experience in making foreign policy, he is quietly emerging as a force in the Clinton administration. Since assuming the post two years ago, Perry has gradually earned his stripes and now has considerable clout inside the Oval Office, administration officials say. Besides nurturing Clinton’s efforts to woo the military, Perry has been influential on major foreign policy decisions. While former State Department mediator Richard C. Holbrooke arm-twisted representatives of the three Balkan factions to engineer the Dayton peace accord, Perry shepherded the creation of NATO’s so-far-successful peacekeeping force, including setting limits on what it should take on. Last week, Perry led the charge to move two aircraft carrier battle groups near the Strait of Taiwan as a show of force after China’s decision to conduct live-fire military exercises near Taiwan. “He has turned into a statesman,” says one observer who was a skeptic when the secretary took office.

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STEALTH POLICY: The Clinton administration has produced a technological first in foreign policy-making: A major policy white paper that is completely invisible to normal means of detection. By almost any standard, the paper, which outlines the administration’s fundamental national security strategy each year, ought to be ballyhooed during working hours, accompanied by a briefing for reporters--possibly by the president’s national security advisor, Anthony Lake. But last year the administration, which has been criticized for not having a clearly defined national security strategy, quietly slipped it into reporters’ boxes well after sunset, when virtually everyone in the press room had left for their offices. And this year, aides said, they didn’t even distribute the document unless journalists specifically asked for it.

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ENGLISH . . . WHATEVER: For all his strengths as a Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) could hardly be known as a polished speaker. In campaign appearances, he fumbles for words, wrenches syntax and at times seems to talk in a code only he can decipher. When at a loss for words mid-sentence, he often launches a “whatever” to signal the end of a particular thought. Yet his manner is endearing to many in the press corps, which has taken to counting the number of “whatevers” he utters daily and is even celebrating his speech with T-shirts. The shirt front says: “The Dole Campaign. Whatever!” The back carries a six-word phrase he first used in Medford, Ore., to describe how other politicians, rushing to be heard in as many states as possible, bound into a community, give a speech and zip away before they can be held accountable for their claims. In Dolespeak, that’s: “Blow In, Blow Off, Blow Out.”

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BUCHANAN’S SECRET: As part of his regular stump shtick, Republican presidential hopeful Patrick J. Buchanan stokes the antipathy many of his followers have for the “liberal media.” But in an interview with The Times this week, the candidate who uses jokes and innuendo on the campaign trail to imply distrust of the news media expressed a different view. “The truth is, I’ve gotten fairer, more comprehensive coverage of my ideas than I ever imagined I would receive,” Buchanan said. “I’ve gotten balanced coverage and broad coverage--all we could have asked.” Buchanan’s interpretation would surely baffle many of his supporters, a number of whom have lashed out at reporters at campaign events, calling them names but refusing to answer their questions. Buchanan says his rhetoric is not meant to stir hostilities toward the media. “For heaven sakes, we kid about the liberal media, but every Republican on Earth does that.”