Kenneth Starr, Clinton's protector

Conventional "wisdom" suggests Bill Clinton's chief political nemesis
has been Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.

The hard truth is that Kenneth Starr has been Bill Clinton's
political savior -- time after time compromising his own investigation
through ineptitude, the hiring of attorneys and investigators
politically loyal to the president, and a systematic refusal to seriously
probe the most egregious administration scandals.

The record is replete with such examples: Placing a close friend of
Janet Reno in charge of the Vincent Foster investigation and forcing out
U.S. Attorney Miquel Rodriguez, who was determined to conduct a thorough
probe; permitting Webster Hubbell to take a payoff and refuse to honor
his plea-bargain agreement; and failing to call any major witnesses in
the Filegate probe.

Here are a couple more stunning revelations for those of you who are
still not convinced that the politically plugged in establishment guy,
who draws $1 million a year from a law firm on the take from the fascist
government in China, is not a serious investigator, but a damage-control
figure.

With regard to the latest revelations by Juanita Broaddrick, many in
the Clinton camp are saying: Starr investigated this. He didn't find
anything. So there must not be any substance to her charges.

The fact of the matter is that Starr never heard any testimony from
Broaddrick about her rape allegations. Let me repeat that. Broaddrick
never testified to Starr investigators that she had been raped by Bill
Clinton. Reportedly, she broke down and said only that "something
happened." That was the extent of the probe. And since she has never
made any claim that Clinton attempted to silence her testimony, Starr
passed on further questioning.

Never mind the fact that Broaddrick consulted with White House
attorney Bruce Lindsey in preparing her false testimony in the Paula
Jones case. That overt conflict of interest didn't concern Starr, who,
remember, had never prosecuted a single case in his life before being
named independent counsel.

So, the next time you hear a Clinton apologist tell you that Starr
found nothing in Broaddrick's story, just remind him that Starr never
heard her story before he read it in the Wall Street Journal or saw Lisa
Myers' interview on NBC.

Secondly, did you notice who is representing Julie Hiatt Steele, a
witness indicted by Starr for contradicting Kathleen Willey's
allegations of an unwanted sexual assault by Clinton?

His name is Eric Dubelier, and he is now accusing Starr of improperly
conducting and interpreting polygraph tests in the case.

Who is Eric Dubelier? He is a former prosecutor on Starr's staff who
just recently joined Steele's legal team. And what was Dubelier's role
with the Starr investigation? He worked on -- are you ready for this? --
the probe of the White House use of FBI files.

Now, where I come from, this is called "conflict of interest" -- with
a capital C, capital O and capital I. Starr is apparently not pursuing
this angle, either. Why not? What does Mr. Dubelier know that might
prove embarrassing to Starr? Perhaps Starr realizes just how badly he
blew the Filegate investigation and doesn't want the rest of the world
to know it.

It may take 20 years to find out the truth about the Clinton
administration scandals. Then again, we may never know the full extent
of the corruption. Just last week, we learned of a new revelation from
the Watergate era -- that the burglars had also penetrated a foreign
embassy. If, indeed, the truth never fully emerges, we will have Kenneth
Starr to thank as much as the professional cover-up artists within the
White House.

I know this is not a popular idea I put forward. In American
politics, everyone likes to have someone to root for. I wish it were so
simple. At best, in the Clinton scandals we see bad guys and compromised
guys. That fact has prevented the worst of the scandals from ever being
exposed -- at least through the official proceedings.

Less than halfway through his investigation, Kenneth Starr announced
he was going to quit his post and take a job at Pepperdine University.
He should have done the nation a huge favor and followed through with
that plan. I wish he never changed his mind.