BY FRANK DAVIES

 WASHINGTON -- Under fire but ever resilient, Janet Reno once again is
 defending a controversial law enforcement action, the latest crisis to punctuate
 a remarkable seven-year tenure as attorney general.

 Some Capitol Hill critics and legal commentators are offering harsh critiques
 of the predawn raid to seize Elian Gonzalez, while other analysts and former
 colleagues say she will weather this latest controversy the way she has Waco,
 independent counsel disputes, spy flaps and many tough legal decisions, with
 equanimity and consistency.

 Reno said Monday she had ''no regrets whatsoever'' about the raid in Little
 Havana Saturday to seize the boy and reunite him with his father.

 ''I tried my level best to make sure we avoided this situation and if I bent over
 backward, so be it,'' she said on NBC's Today. ''I'm satisfied with the result.''

 Then the attorney general left for the White House and an event she attends every
 year, the Easter egg roll mobbed by children. As before, she read to kids from
 Voyage to the Bunny Planet, about a benevolent rabbit who has a terrible day and
 seeks solace in a kinder, more peaceful world.

 She wont find solace on Capitol Hill today, when she plans to meet with several
 senators, including Majority Leader Trent Lott, who denounced the raid. Monday,
 House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde said he would launch ''a preliminary
 inquiry'' into the incident.

 SPEAKER 'APPALLED'

 Hyde said he was acting at the request of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who
 said he was ''appalled'' by the seizure of the boy.

 This is nothing new for Reno. She has faced a series of tough calls since taking
 office in 1993, when she approved the FBI assault on Waco in one of her first
 decisions.

 ''I cant think of an attorney general who has been on the hot seat so many times,''
 said Stanley Brand, a veteran Washington defense lawyer. ''For starters, she
 appointed more independent counsels than anyone [seven] -- and got criticized
 when she didn't appoint more.''

 One legal commentator who has defended Reno and the administration during
 impeachment said he was troubled by the raid, and that the attorney generals
 tenure, the longest since 1829, will be known by the bookends of Waco and
 Little Havana.

 ''The raid was precipitous, and looks retaliatory, like she got mad at the 11th
 Circuit ruling'' that kept Elian in the United States, said Paul Rothstein, a
 Georgetown University law professor.

 ''Its very harmful to her record.''

 That criticism differs from those who say she is too cautious, that she took too
 long to decide on independent counsels in campaign-finance cases, and then
 decided against an independent probe of practices by President Clinton and Vice
 President Gore.

 She was also criticized for refusing an FBI request for a wiretap in the probe of
 possible Chinese spying at a nuclear weapons lab.

 'OVERLY PRUDENT'

 ''She is very reluctant to reach decisions and take action,'' said Stanley Renshon,
 a political psychologist at City University of New York. ''So in the end she gets
 second-guessed more and takes a lot more heat. She has a pattern of being
 overly prudent.''

 But Brand said he would rate Reno as ''very effective,'' someone who gave ''a
 human face'' to law enforcement and established a reputation of independence
 and integrity that served her well during various Clinton scandals.

 ''She does her own thing, and political attacks don't stick -- the public knows she
 is no crony of Clinton,'' Brand said.

 Shay Bilchik, who headed juvenile justice programs for six years under Reno,
 said that her careful deliberation may be misinterpreted as undue caution.

 ''For an important decision she goes through a thorough, inclusive process,'' said
 Bilchik, who also worked for Reno when she was Miami-Dade state attorney.
 ''And she does it with a lot of intestinal fortitude.''

 Walter Dellinger, who served as acting solicitor general under Reno, told
 American Lawyer, a legal journal: ''Often the Washington establishment failed to
 understand Janet's greatest strength, which is that she doesn't give a damn what
 they think.''

 Several political observers have noted that repeatedly, from the handling of Waco
 evidence to the nuclear weapons case, calls for her resignation or new
 investigations have faded. In the last three years, Reno has testified before
 Congress at least 21 times.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald