Miami Herald

Published Thursday, October 11, 2001

Reno shares Parkinson's details

TYLER BRIDGES tbridges@herald.com

Over the years, many politicians have hidden their health problems. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example, was never photographed publicly in a wheelchair and kept his polio a secret.

In the early stages of her campaign for governor, however, former Attorney General Janet Reno has put her Parkinson's disease on full display, and never more so than Wednesday night before a small group associated with the Miami-based National Parkinson Foundation.

Reno devoted nearly her entire 20-minute discussion to the disease, by turns making light of it and discussing it seriously.

A light story: ``I used to sit in the conference room at the 9:30 press availability in the Justice Department I had every Thursday, and I would watch NBC and ABC look down at my hand. I said finally, `I've gotten used to it. If you'd get used to it, it wouldn't bother you anymore.' ''

Another one: ``I would watch people as I give a speech, watch my hand go like this'' -- she raised her trembling right hand -- ``and I decided I'd become a conductor.''

More often, though, Reno spoke seriously about a disease she first noticed afflicting her in 1995 when her thumb and hand started tapping together involuntarily.

``Your hands can tremble, but it doesn't [affect] anything but your handwriting,'' she said.

``I couldn't read John F. Kennedy's handwriting if you paid me.''

She added, ``It has always been my theory to tell everybody: `Here I am. What you see is what you get. A 63-year-old woman.'

``Then they say, `Well, there's dementia and depression [associated with the disease].' Yeah, there's dementia and depression with a lot of other problems, too. But we work through them. I think you've got to be open and straightforward.''

In other speeches, Reno has said she consulted with Parkinson's specialists, and they have told her that she has a mild version of the disease.

One of the specialists she spoke with was Dr. Abraham Lieberman, national medical director of the National Parkinson Foundation, after she stayed up late reading his book, Shaking Up Parkinson Disease.

``I told her, `If you can read my book in one night, you don't have dementia,' '' Lieberman said with a smile Wednesday night.

Reno is one of several well-known people who have Parkinson's disease; others are boxer Muhammad Ali, actor Michael J. Fox and Pope John Paul II.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001