[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 108 (Monday, August 8, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      THE NEW INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Mr. METZENBAUM. Madam President, after 19 years in the Senate, I 
thought I had seen every irony imaginable. Not so. Here is one for the 
record books.
  Robert Fiske, a Republican who was named independent counsel at the 
instance of Republicans, is now perceived as less than impartial. Mr. 
Fiske, a lawyer praised by Republicans for his professionalism and 
integrity, is now deemed to be somehow tainted. After over half a year 
on the job, we are told that Mr. Fiske can not be trusted. That he is 
politically unclean.
  And look at who is doing the telling. Look at the presiding judge of 
the politically pure and impartial tribunal which just gave Mr. Fiske 
the boot. It is Judge David Sentelle, serving at the request of Justice 
Rehnquist, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, sponsored by Senator 
Jesse Helms, and judicial protector of Oliver North.
  And upon whose advice is Judge Sentelle acting? Apparently the advice 
of Floyd Brown, the man who gave us the Willie Horton Ad. And whom does 
Judge Sentelle send to the rescue? Kenneth Starr, appointed to the 
bench by Ronald Reagan, named Solicitor General by George Bush, 
potential Republican candidate for public office, and friend-of-the-
court to Paula Jones.
  Madam President, give me a break. This move screams politics. How can 
Mr. Starr take this job and expect to appear impartial with all this 
background noise?
  I know Mr. Starr. I met him when he had served previously, and I find 
nothing wrong with him. As a matter of fact, almost everything I hear 
about him is positive. He is clearly a well-respected lawyer, he was a 
fair judge, he is intellectually accomplished. In short, I am sure he 
is a good man. But that is not the issue here. The issue is the 
appearance of independence. And Judge Sentelle's selection of Mr. Starr 
mars that appearance.
  Mr. Starr is not a bad man. I do not know of anything wrong with Mr. 
Starr, but this thing just looks bad. It looks like a setup. And if Mr. 
Starr is as smart as everybody says he is, he will realize that the 
appearances created by these circumstances are just too great to 
overcome.
  Mr. Starr, I respect you, but I also urge you in the strongest 
possible terms, in behalf of your own credibility and your own 
integrity, to recognize the situation that you have been put into. I 
urge you to decline this appointment.
  Madam President, I yield back the remainder of my time and yield the 
floor.
  Mr. SPECTER addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I inquire of the Senator from Ohio if 
he would be willing to respond to a question. As I heard him--and I 
tried to write this down as fast as I could--I thought he said that 
Judge Sentelle was acting on the advice of a man, whom I believe he 
named but I did not know and did not understand, who brought us Willie 
Horton. My question to the Senator from Ohio is, first, did you say 
that Judge Sentelle is acting on the advice of someone?
  Mr. METZENBAUM. What I said was that Judge Sentelle had been advised 
by the gentleman that I named and I believe 10 members of your party to 
call for Judge Fiske to be removed from his position. My information on 
that subject comes from this morning's Washington Post.
  Mr. SPECTER. I just sent for the Washington Post clipping. But when 
the Senator from Ohio makes that accusation, does he have any basis 
beyond the Washington Post clipping or know what the basis of the 
Washington Post is?
  Mr. METZENBAUM. Are you questioning the integrity of the Washington 
Post or its accuracy? I am not sure what the Senator--I did not see the 
letter, and Judge Sentelle did not tell me that he received it. But I 
think it is reasonable to assume, and I would assume, that the Senator 
from Pennsylvania is not challenging the accuracy of the Washington 
Post reporter and the story this morning. I have not seen the New York 
Times nor Philadelphia papers, but I would be glad to check all of them 
if you give me the time to do so and see whether or not they do not 
have similar reports.
  Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I am not challenging the integrity of 
the Washington Post, because I believe the comment made by the Senator 
from Ohio, but I believe the Senator from Ohio is challenging the 
integrity of Judge Sentelle. When he challenges the integrity of Judge 
Sentelle, as he said in his opening statement that he was acting on the 
advice of an identified man who brought us Willie Horton, it is at that 
point that I ask the Senator from Ohio what the basis of his challenge 
to Judge Sentelle's integrity is.
  When he cites the Washington Post and asks me if I am challenging 
their integrity, I am not challenging anybody's integrity. When he asks 
me if I am challenging the accuracy of the Washington Post, that may be 
a different matter. It may be that there has been some occasion when 
the Washington Post may not have been accurate. But I think if the 
Senator from Ohio is making that kind of a serious accusation against 
Judge Sentelle,--and I think it is a very serious accusation, and he 
also implicates Senator Helms--I am trying to find----
  Mr. METZENBAUM. I did not implicate anybody. I just stated the facts, 
just the facts.
  Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I do not know that the Senator from 
Ohio is stating the facts. I do not know, when he makes a bland 
statement that Judge Sentelle is acting on the advice of a given man 
and does not cite the newspaper article, that he is operating on the 
facts.
  Mr. METZENBAUM. I will say to my colleague----
  Mr. SPECTER. I have the floor, Madam President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania has the floor.
  Mr. SPECTER. I will be glad to yield in just a moment, because I 
think this is an important subject, but I think that when the Senator 
from Ohio comes to the floor and makes an accusation against Judge 
Sentelle without citing a source and then cites a newspaper source and 
then says that he is just reciting the facts, I do not know that he is. 
I do not know that he is not, but I do not know that he is.
  I have a question about the Senator from Ohio making a charge against 
a Federal judge, in this circumstance, after taking it out of the 
newspaper. I think the floor of the U.S. Senate ought to have a little 
more reliability and authenticity than simply taking a newspaper 
citation to charge a Federal judge, especially when no source is given. 
But I am about to read the newspaper article and will have a further 
comment about it.
  So I yield for whatever the Senator from Ohio wanted to say.
  Mr. METZENBAUM addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. METZENBAUM. Madam President, I am just stating the facts as I 
know them to be. What I said was, and I repeat it:

       And who is doing the telling? Look at the presiding judge 
     and the politically pure and impartial tribunal which just 
     gave Mr. Fiske the boot. It is Judge David Sentelle, serving 
     at the request of Justice Rehnquist, appointed by President 
     Ronald Reagan, sponsored by Senator Jesse Helms and judicial 
     protector of Oliver North.
       And upon whose advice is Judge Sentelle acting? Apparently 
     the advice of Floyd Brown, the man who gave us the Willie 
     Horton ad.

  If the Senator from Pennsylvania knows something more than I do about 
the facts, not just what he thinks may or may not be the facts, that is 
up to him to decide, but I do not intend to debate this longer.
  My opinion is that the appointment of Kenneth Starr who, for all 
practical purposes and as far as I know is a decent and honorable man, 
just does not look good, just does not look right. I think that out of 
the hundreds of thousands of lawyers in this country, it is hard to 
understand that Judge Sentelle and the other members of that three-
judge tribunal--it is not a tribunal, it is just a panel--how they came 
to pick out one man, Kenneth Starr, of all the lawyers in this country. 
What do we have, some sort of inbreeding here that you can only look at 
those that have held public office? Thousands of lawyers across the 
country are in a position to do this. Fiske himself was doing a good 
job, and nobody claims that he was not.
  I think it is an absurdity to bring in Kenneth Starr under these 
circumstances.
  I yield the floor, and I do not intend to debate the matter further.
  Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I will just ask the Senator from Ohio 
one more question. He said twice now Judge Sentelle is the judicial 
protector of someone--I am sorry that he left the floor. In seeking 
recognition and in seeking to question the Senator from Ohio, I am not 
going to get into a debate about the adequacy of Mr. Fiske or about the 
adequacy of Mr. Starr or about the adequacy of anybody.
  But I do think that when a U.S. Senator takes the floor and makes the 
kind of serious charges which he has made as to Judge Sentelle, that he 
ought to have facts to back it up. It may be that the newspaper account 
is entirely correct. And it may be that the newspaper account is not 
entirely correct. What I intend to do is get a transcript as to what 
Senator Metzenbaum said and to make inquiries as to the source of the 
newspaper account and as to what Judge Sentelle has to say and refer to 
the matter later as soon as I have the information.

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