T H E C L I N T O N C R I S I S bell hooks, Lillian Rubin and Clinton biographers analyze the First Couple By Camille Peri and Lori Leibovich Clinton's sexual hypocrisy By Christopher Hitchens If Clinton falls, will he take the Democrats with him? By David Corn - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A full list of articles R E C E N T L Y Convicted assassin By Jeff Stein "I wanted to shoot the CIA director" (01/22/98) What's on the tapes By Jonathan Broder Details of the sex tapes that may sink the president. (01/22/98) JFK wannabe By Camille Paglia Salon's columnist comments on the sexual politics of the Clinton White House. (01/22/98) Unsinkable Bill By Alexander Cockburn The president's latest "end" is greatly exaggerated (01/22/98) Horowitz: It's his character, stupid Beyond the Beltway reactions (01/22/98) Is Clinton that reckless? By Andrew Ross We're about to witness either the end of the president -- or of his enemies (01/21/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		Advantage, Starr? INDEPENDENT COUNSEL KENNETH STARR HAS THE WHIP HAND IN THE LATEST CLINTON SEX SCANDAL. AND THAT HAS MORE THAN JUST THE PRESIDENT CONCERNED. BY JONATHAN BRODER WASHINGTON --The ball is no longer in President Clinton's court. While the "outraged" president denies that he slept with a 21-year-old White House intern and then instructed her to lie about the affair, it is up to his longtime nemesis, Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, to exonerate Clinton or extinguish his presidency. What Starr now has on his plate is much more than a penny-ante land deal gone wrong. He is investigating the most serious allegations to be leveled against a sitting president since the Watergate scandal that brought down Richard Nixon. And some people are wondering just how Starr got to be in such a position -- and if he's the right man for the job. "Why is Kenneth Starr so obsessed about Bill Clinton's sex life?" a woman named Gail asked on a local Washington radio talk show. "Who cares? If Starr is so determined to get Clinton, he can cut him to pieces after he's finished his term." The caller's sentiment echoes charges made by President Clinton's defenders: that Starr is a partisan Republican with strong ties to the ultraconservative Christian right who is pursuing an avowedly political agenda. Gene Lyons, a political columnist for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, only half-jokingly opined that Starr was leading a "coup d'état." Earlier this week, Starr won the approval of a federal panel to include these latest sexual allegations against Clinton in his four-year-long Whitewater probe after he presented the judges with secretly tape-recorded statements of Monica Lewinsky, a 24-year-old former White House intern, claiming that she and Clinton had a sexual relationship and that Clinton and his close advisor, Vernon Jordan, had instructed her to lie about it if questioned. Starr has also issued sweeping subpoenas for White House visitors logs and Secret Service records of the president's minute-by-minute whereabouts to determine if and when Clinton met Lewinsky at the White House. Starr is also seeking records of any gifts that the president may have given Lewinsky, as well as any presents that she may have given him. Raising eyebrows is the manner in which Starr has obtained evidence in the case so far. Unknown to her, Lewinsky's original statements were illegally recorded by a friend, Linda Tripp, who turned them over to the independent counsel's office. Starr, after granting Tripp immunity for the illegal taping, then wired her with a microphone and had her meet again with Lewinsky, who repeated her claims, unaware that the tape would be used by the independent counsel. "This is bottom fishing, as far as I'm concerned, and I have to hold my nose to even read about this thing," said Abner Mikva, a former White House counsel to Clinton, now a law professor at the University of Chicago. "Any prosecutor worth his salt wouldn't touch this with a 10-foot pole. What kind of hard evidence does he have? He's got illegally recorded tapes of two woman talking to each other, both of whom are less than reliable. Is there a tape of the president or Jordan talking about suborning of perjury? There isn't. If the president and Vernon Jordan told this woman to lie under oath, that's a serious charge. But what is the evidence of that? What Starr has is garbage." Mikva also questioned the judgment and motives of Judge David Sentelle, a Republican appointee who heads the federal panel that authorized Starr to probe Lewinsky's allegations. "Judge Sentelle authorizes the wearing of a wire," Mikva said incredulously. "So this has to be a really important matter of national security, right?" Even some Republicans have doubts about Starr's stewardship of the investigation. "The independent counsel's office is not the ideal place to clear this up," said C. Boyden Gray, a former White House counsel to President George Bush. "I'm not sure I know what the ideal place is. It's very tricky." N E X T+P A G E+| What Starr will do next