Saturday, August 22, 1998

Ken Starr wins in 'get the president'

By Donald Kaul

So it was a lame speech. What did you expect, Jimmy Swaggart? That's not the president's style.

William Jefferson Clinton went before the American people Monday night and did pretty much what he always does: admitted what he couldn't avoid, finessed the rest and depended on the forgiving nature of the public to let him slide through yet another crisis of his own making.

And I'm sure it will work, up to a point. People are sick of this mess and want to be rid of it, one way or another. So he lied; OK. Let's turn the page.

And I'm just as sure that none of that will make any difference. Clinton's problem is not with the American people, it's with Ken Starr. And Starr, having pursued the president through the swamps for lo these many years, is not going to call off the chase just when he gets his quarry treed. He's not going to be satisfied until he has Clinton wearing an orange jump suit and shuffling along in leg irons. Apparently, there's nothing anyone can do to stop him.

Many of the president's sternest critics have been arguing the Monica Lewinsky thing is not about sex, that it's about perjury or obstruction of justice or moral leadership. They're half-right.

This case is not about sex, it's about getting the president, about reversing the results of the past two presidential elections. That's the job the Republicans brought Starr in to perform; that's the job he's doing.

I'm not sure that's a proper function of the special prosecutor's office. Indeed, were the legal profession interested in maintaining ethical standards, it would set up a committee to look into the possibility that Starr colluded with Paula Jones' lawyers (one of whom is a former college classmate) to set a perjury trap for Clinton; that is, to create a crime where none before existed.

Look at how things unfolded. Starr, in January, was in desperate shape. Three and a half years and $30 million into an investigation of the Clintons and he had nothing to show for it. Zip.

Then Linda Tripp shows up with her tapes of Monica blabbing about her relationship with the president. Before you know it, the information is in the hands of Jones' attorneys, who then proceed to ask the president about it while deposing him in the (unrelated and since dismissed) Jones suit.

The president, seeking to avoid the embarrassment of yet another bimbo eruption and unaware of the Lewinsky tapes, tries to lie his way out of it. Bingo! Starr is on him for perjury, suborning perjury and obstruction of justice. (As if there were any justice to obstruct here.)

There seems something wrong about that. Law enforcement officers are supposed to punish crimes, not create them. One can argue Starr could have accomplished the same thing by having Jones' lawyers ask Clinton about his latest golf score. If he lied about it, they'd have had him on the same perjury rap.

It's a good thing for Starr that the legal profession isn't one.

None of which, of course, speaks to the fact that Bill Clinton is a low and cunning fellow, unworthy of the trust that people have placed in him. A man of enormous political gifts, he has sacrificed the brilliant promise of his presidency to his baser instincts. I, for one, am tired of his act, and I'm tired of him.

I think the honorable thing for him to have done Monday is to have come on television, admitted his betrayal of his family and friends, expressed his shame at having looked the American people in the eye and lied to them, and resigned from office. This would have had several good effects:

-- It would have confounded his enemies, turning the Republicans into bad guys for having hounded this popular man from office on a trivial matter. It might even have given control of the House of Representatives over to the Democrats this fall.

-- It would have given the nation two years to get used to a wooden Indian in the White house, making Gore a much more formidable candidate in 2000.

-- It would have given Clinton a chance to seek badly-needed therapy for his sexual disorder.

The only downside is that Ken Starr would then be free to indict Clinton on the perjury charge, which he would do. Clinton might yet wind up in the orange jump suit.

But at least he'd be a sympathetic felon, which is more than he is now.

E-mail Donald Kaul at otcoffee@aol.com or write to him c/o Tribune Media Services. Inc., 435 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1400, Chicago, IL 60611.