Friday, November 27, 1998

Give up, impeachment fans; it's over

By Joseph Spear

It seems clear to all but a few hundred zealots, fruitcakes, monomaniacs and extreme partisans that Bill Clinton will not and should not be impeached and that it would benefit the national psyche to stop this madness now and move on to other things.

Hear me, fanaticos: It is time to shut it down, draw the shades, clear the premises. Get a grip and give us some peace.

I personally came to this conclusion about four years ago. Others weren't sure until they read independent counsel Kenneth Starr's pornographic report to Congress, saw the videotape of the president's grand jury testimony and heard Starr's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. There is nothing more to be heard, nothing else to be said, and these things are now obvious:

n Since the summer of 1994, when independent counsel Robert Fiske was dismissed, and Kenneth Starr was appointed by a judicial panel headed by a right-wing judge after he lunched with a couple of right-wing senators, the so-called Whitewater probe has been anything but an impartial investigation. It has been a prolonged, expensive and utterly feckless partisan witch hunt.

Before his appointment, Starr publicly supported Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton. In his private practice, he represented several groups that are bitterly opposed to Clinton and his policies - including a conservative foundation, the tobacco industry and the Republican Party.

He continued his $1 million-a-year practice even after being named an independent counsel. He spoke at Parson Pat Robertson's law school. He openly criticized the White House that he was supposedly investigating in an impartial manner. He accepted an academic position that would have been subsidized by one of Clinton's most notorious right-wing adversaries.

In his testimony, Starr oh-so-coolly spoke of Clinton's "premeditated false statements," a "scheme" in which Clinton participated, the "premeditated and calculated fashion" in which he "deceived" the public, and the "false alibis" he "concocted."

Starr's bias was so blatant that his ethics adviser, former Senate Watergate Committee counsel Sam Dash abruptly resigned with the charge that Starr had engaged in an "abuse" of his office and had "unlawfully intruded" on the impeachment process.

n Every charge made by the hate-Clinton crowd has turned out to be a figment of their active imaginations. Vince Foster indeed killed himself. Whitewater was a washout. Travelgate was a turkey. Filegate was a fantasy. As of January, 1998, Ken Starr had spent $40 million and could prove nothing - and then along came a snitch/witch named Linda Tripp with evidence of a presidential dalliance with an intern, and suddenly Starr and his posse of prosecutors and FBI agents were back in business.

When Clinton denied an affair with Monica Lewinsky under oath in his deposition for the Paula Jones case, the Starr gang rushed in with a charge of perjury and thereby criminalized Clinton's sex life. The prosecutor has struggled to convert a presidential fib into a Constitutional crisis, but it is pure sophistry. The vaunted "Whitewater" investigation has devolved into a probe of sex sex sex, and there is no way to get around it.

n In the political context, Clinton's "lie" is a joke. He said he did not have "sexual relations" with Lewinsky. The dictionary defines that term as "coitus," i.e., sexual intercourse, which Clinton and Monica did not engage in. Clinton did not lie. He evaded, which is a tactic hundreds of politicians, bureaucrats and official spokespersons engage in every day of their lives. Even righteous Ken Starr does it.

Time after time in his congressional testimony, Starr could not recall, or had no recollection. Several times, he was confronted with contradictory facts, and he slipped and slithered around them. The official report of Starr's own FBI agent referred to efforts to get Lewinsky to secretly record Clinton, his secretary Betty Currie and his friend Vernon Jordan. Starr denied it. Who was lying? Shouldn't somebody be charged with contempt here?

It's over, people. Turn out the lights and let's go home.

Newspaper Enterprise Assn.