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NEW DEA CHIEF HAS DAUNTING TASK

Washington - The high esteem in which former Rep.  Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas is held by his colleagues was demonstrated by the 98-1 Senate vote confirming him last month as the newdirector of the Drug Enforcement Administration.  Even more telling was the fact that Rep.  John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and an ardent opponent of the impeachment of President Clinton, appeared at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to praise Hutchinson, who had been one of the Republican House managers presenting the case against Clinton to the full Senate.

In his 41/2 years in the House, Hutchinson, a former U.S.  attorney, earned an estimable reputation as a thoughtful conservative and, as liberals like Conyers and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont affirmed, as a fair-minded advocate.

Hutchinson will need all his skills in his new job, for the nation is clearly about to embark on a long-overdue debate on the so-called "war on drugs." The DEA is, as the name implies, primarily a law enforcement agency, but John Walters, Bush's choice to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, has been in limbo, awaiting a confirmation hearing since May.  Many of the same Democrats who welcomed Hutchinson's nomination have argued that Walters' hard-line approach, emphasizing interdiction and incarceration over education and treatment, makes him the wrong choice for "drug czar." At least until Walters' fate is resolved, Hutchinson is in the hot seat on Bush administration policy toward drugs.

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