A L S O+T O D A Y Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Starr By Gary Kamiya When the real Kenneth Starr finally stood up before the House, he turned out to have a split personality Nothing has changed Compiled by Lori Leibovich and Fiona Morgan The consensus of political experts is that no minds were changed by Starr's day in court Starr on the stand An uncut transcript of Thursday's sometimes rancorous and often bitterly partisan congressional impeachment proceedings Dear Ken The full text of ethics advisor Sam Dash's letter of resignation to Kenneth Starr Starr speaks The full text of independent counsel Kenneth Starr's House Judiciary Committee testimony A dozen questions Congress should ask Kenneth Starr By David Talbot, Murray Waas and Joan Walsh (11/18/98)   T A B L E+T A L K Discuss Ken Starr and his testimony in the Politics area of Table Talk   R E C E N T L Y Same Old Party By Joshua Micah Marshall New leadership can't mend the rifts among Republicans in Congress (11/19/98) Reply to C.D. Ellison By David Horowitz It's time for blacks to have a two-party system, too (11/19/98) Toppling Saddam By Frank Smyth Clinton wants a new government in Baghdad, but he and the Iraqi opposition are unlikely to be up to the task (11/18/98) Brother on brother By Murray Waas Whitewater witness David Hale attempted to suborn perjury by his own brother by asking him to falsely corroborate illegal acts by President Clinton (11/17/98) The mark of Cain: a tale of two brothers By Murray Waas Though they traveled the same path from the family dirt farm through law school, the Hale brothers turned out different as night and day (11/17/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.
		Starr Wars The Democrats strike back - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - BY JOAN WALSH | Under oath, in the glare of the camera lights, facing down his inquisitors, independent counsel Kenneth Starr sounded a lot like President Clinton before Starr's grand jury -- forgetful and evasive -- as he testified before the House Judiciary Committee for more than a dozen hours on Thursday. As the questioning by Democratic committee members grew tougher -- moving into the touchy areas of Starr's leaks to reporters, contacts with Paula Jones' lawyers and relationship with Linda Tripp -- the independent counsel increasingly deflected questions by professing, "I can't recall," "to the best of my recollection" and "I'd have to check the record." Arguably the most charged moment in the hearing came late in the day, when Rep. Zoe Lofgren asked Starr if he had been told in November 1997 about the existence of tape recordings "on which a woman claimed to have had sexual contact with President Clinton." Starr, who claims he learned about Tripp's tapes of Monica Lewinsky in January 1998, seemed flummoxed. "I am not recalling that; the specificity of your question suggests that there may be information and I'm happy to respond to information," Starr began. "Is there any possibility that the answer is yes?" Lofgren responded. "I have no recollection of it, but I am happy to search my recollection. This is the first time anyone has asked me such a question," Starr said. But Committee Chairman Henry Hyde cut off Lofgren's questioning -- she had reached her allotted five minutes -- before the independent counsel could respond. Starr controlled the hearing for its first six hours, reading from the 58-page testimony that had been leaked the night before, which he said made the case that Clinton had abused his office and obstructed justice in trying to keep his affair with Lewinsky a secret. He defended his aggressive questioning of Lewinsky in January, keeping her for almost 13 hours at the Ritz-Carlton, by describing her as "a felon in the middle of committing another felony." But House Counsel Abbe Lowell drew some blood with an argument that would be reprised by other Democrats all day. Its essence was: Kenneth Starr, you are no Leon Jaworski. Lowell quoted the renowned Watergate prosecutor to open his questioning, on the lessons of his investigation into Richard Nixon's wrongdoing: "The central key to the entire success was not accusing anyone," Jaworski wrote. "What we did is simply carried forward what the facts were, passed them on, not making an effort to interpret them, not making any sort of an effort to construe or to say what we thought it showed and let it be completely nonaccusative." Lowell then tore into Starr and his impeachment referral, which he dubbed "the referral with an attitude," questioning Starr's use of inflammatory terms like "premeditated"; "concocted false alibis"; "deceived"; "pattern of obstruction"; "lying under oath"; "perjury" to describe President Clinton's actions -- "words you will never find in the report of Leon Jaworski when he was reporting the same kind of evidence to the Congress 24 years ago," Lowell told Starr. Later that day, Lowell's complaint was backed by a surprising ally, Starr ethics advisor and former Senate Watergate Committee chief counsel Sam Dash, who resigned from Starr's office to protest his testimony. "You have violated your obligations under the independent counsel statute and have unlawfully intruded on the power of impeachment," Dash said in a letter to Starr obtained by The Associated Press. Lowell and Democrats grilled Starr on his and his law firm's connections with Jones' lawyers; when and how he learned about Tripp and her tapes; his office's leaks to the media; his treatment of Lewinsky and most of the dozen key questions about his investigation laid out by Salon on Tuesday. Starr's testimony confirmed what critics alleged when his sex-filled report was sent to Congress in September: There will be no impeachment referral in the Whitewater matter, the topic that inspired the $40 million-plus investigation. Starr revealed he had prepared a Whitewater-based impeachment referral in 1997 but dropped it because of insufficient evidence. Salon has learned that Starr considered sending an impeachment referral regarding Whitewater as late as spring 1998, but put it on hold pending the completion of a federal investigation into payments to key witness David Hale by Clinton-hating conservative political activists, first reported by Salon last March. Starr faced no questions about his relationship to Hale, but he was grilled about many of the other alleged improprieties of his investigation: On the question of whether he knew his law firm had discussed representing Paula Jones, Starr answered, "my best recollection is no." He insisted Attorney General Janet Reno should have already known that he had consulted with Jones' lawyers on the question of presidential immunity, and didn't need to be told that when she authorized expanding his probe into the Jones-related Lewinsky matter. Starr repeatedly insisted his office first learned about Linda Tripp and the Lewinsky tapes on Jan. 8, 1998 although they were known about in conservative circles as early as November 1997. He denied knowing his former law partner and conservative political activist, Richard Porter, helped steer Tripp to his office. "There may be facts of which I am unaware that I should be aware of before I form a complete response," he added. N E X T+P A G E+| "I'm not recalling that specifically, no." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here.