[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 10 (Wednesday, February 11, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S638-S639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          INDEPENDENT COUNSEL

  Mr. COATS. Madam President, over the past 3 weeks or so, Independent 
Counsel Ken Starr has been the subject of a sustained attack by 
individuals speaking on behalf of the President. Judging by some of 
these statements, it seems there is little that the President's 
surrogates are unwilling to say about Judge Starr. The objective of 
these comments seems clear--to undermine public confidence in the very 
legal processes designed to assure public integrity in the White House.
  In an extraordinary televised interview, the First Lady accused the 
independent counsel of being ``politically motivated'' by an 
investigation of the Monica Lewinsky matter and part of a ``vast right-
wing conspiracy'' to bring down the President. Other Presidential 
advisors have also taken to the airwaves, attacking Kenneth Starr as a 
``scumbag,'' and ``merchant of sleaze.'' One of these advisors went so 
far as to declare war on Judge Starr and the Office of the Independent 
Counsel.
  Now these tactics bring to mind the old adage known to every trial 
lawyer in the country: When you have the facts, argue the facts; when 
you have the law, argue the law; and when you have neither the facts 
nor the law, go after the prosecutor, go after the witnesses, go after 
the accuser, attack their credibility.
  Yesterday in the Wall Street Journal in an editorial entitled 
``Spinning Starr,'' the editors state:

       Events of recent days suggest that an analysis by Mr. 
     Clinton's legal team has concluded that their strongest 
     strategy is not to meet on the battlefield of facts and law, 
     but to conduct a political offensive against the independent 
     counsel and his staff.
       No matter what opposition they've encountered--Paula Jones, 
     Linda Tripp, Kathleen Willey, Fred Thompson, Judge Royce 
     Lamberth--the Clinton side has always chosen the same 
     strategy of stonewalling, smash-mouth lawyering.

  Madam President, for those of us who know Ken Starr and have watched 
and appreciated his distinguished career, the picture painted of this 
man by the President's people is virtually unrecognizable.
  The President's people have asked us to forget Kenneth Starr's 
exemplary personal character, his service as the Nation's Solicitor 
General, and his tenure in the United States Court of Appeals for the 
District of Columbia.
  The President's people have asked us to forget the reputation he has 
gained for fairness and balance and good judgment that he earned 
through working with the Justice Department.
  The President's people have asked us to forget the unpopular chances 
he took in defending freedom of the press and freedom of religion 
during his tenure as a Federal judge.
  And most of all, the President's people have asked us to forget that 
Kenneth Starr has brought to the independent counsel's office the 
cautious, deliberative mind of a judge and not the zeal of a 
prosecutor.
  The President's attack machine has left us not with a caricature of 
Ken Starr but with a smudge: Kenneth Starr, right-wing conspirator, 
partisan prosecutor, Republican hack.
  Madam President, there is too much hanging in the balance of this 
investigation to permit these attacks on Judge Starr's character and 
reputation to go unchallenged. The fact is that even some of Kenneth 
Starr's most committed ideological opponents have in earlier times 
painted a very different picture of the man who is now at the receiving 
end of so much of the Clinton fury.
  Some of you may have heard of Walter Dellinger. He is a professor of 
law at Duke University, a liberal democrat and the former head of the 
Office of Legal Counsel under Attorney General Janet Reno. When Kenneth 
Starr was chosen as independent counsel, Professor Dellinger said, ``I 
have known Ken

[[Page S639]]

Starr since he was one of my students at Duke Law School and I have 
always known him to be a fair-minded person.''
  An official with the American Civil Liberties Union said of Starr's 
appointment, ``I'd rather have him investigate me than almost anyone I 
could think of.''
  Alan Morrison, the cofounder of Public Citizen Litigation Group told 
Time magazine last week that the idea of Kenneth Starr as a right-wing 
avenger is ``not the Ken Starr I know.''
  When Democrats criticized Judge Starr's appointment as politically 
inspired, five former presidents of the American Bar Association 
refused to call for his resignation, citing their ``Utmost confidence 
in his integrity and his objectivity.''
  Just last week, Robert Bork, one of the sternest critics of the 
independent counsel law, wrote that the Office of the Independent 
Counsel ``requires but does not always get an independent counsel of 
moral strength and judicial temperament. Kenneth Starr is just such a 
prosecutor * * * He has conducted himself professionally and without a 
credible hint of partisanship.''
  The worlds of Kenneth Starr and the Clinton White House are 
completely different. The independent counsel has a reputation for 
integrity and fairness. He is temperate by nature and has been 
criticized by his own staff as being deliberative to a fault. Kenneth 
Starr regards justice not as a matter of winning or losing but as a 
search for the truth.
  Madam President, if there is ever a time when we need an impartial 
independent search for the truth, this is that time. A great deal does 
hang in the balance. We have important decisions to make relative to 
foreign policy of this Nation and the domestic policy of this Nation. 
It is important that we be able to rest credibility and trust in the 
Office of the Presidency. It is important that we elicit the facts and 
the truth relative to the allegations swirling around the President and 
the White House at this particular time.
  I can think of no fairer minded nor nonpartisan, capable individual 
than the current independent prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, and I think it 
would be appropriate if all of us let him do his job.
  I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call.
  Mr. NICKLES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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