Defense: It Only Looks Like He's Not Doing Anything

PRESIDENT CLINTON'S decision last week to postpone building a $25 billion antimissile system to protect the U.S. from small-scale nuclear attack, thus leaving the system's fate in the hands of his successor, was widely expected, given that the interceptor missile has failed two of three tests so far and that the rest of the development program is bogging down. The surprising thing is that the announcement didn't leak.

Thanks to the machinations of White House press secretary JOE LOCKHART and National Security Adviser SANDY BERGER, most reporters didn't even know the decision was coming until just hours before Clinton revealed it...