In comedy sketches Reno is always portrayed by men in drag, sporting solid sensible suits and that familiar shock of brown hair and owlish glasses. Her impersonators are unmistakably masculine and don't hesitate to draw into question Reno's sexuality. The jokes continue despite the fact that the Attorney General is now battling an incurable illness. Three years ago she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which in time robs its victims of the ability to control their movements and leaves them wheelchair-bound. In Reno's recent television appearances the tremors in her hands and arms seem to have worsened.
Doctors say stress is a factor.
But she has stood strongly before the lights and cameras, talking about Elian with tears in her eyes, her body all a tremor, and promising to operate under the rule of law and in the child's best interest. It is difficult to watch her visibly suffer emotional and physical distress. The first woman to hold the nation's highest law-enforcement job, Janet Reno has held the position for seven years, longer than any attorney general this century. On her watch were the Ruby Ridge standoff, the Waco conflagration, the Oklahoma City bombing, independent counsel investigations of the Clinton White House, schoolyard massacres, and now poor Elian. The Cuban boy's case is particularly difficult for Janet Reno.