Did the special prosecutor really believe that no one would care if he just walked away? The answer, oddly, may be yes. Friends describe Starr–the son of a Church of Christ minister–as a man absolutely certain of his own moral correctness. That’s how he has managed to justify keeping up a private practice (including representing tobacco companies) while pursuing Whitewater: if he does it, he believes it must be right. The Pepperdine offer, he has said, was an ““extraordinarily attractive opportunity’’ to pursue both teaching and law. It was certainly lucrative. Starr would have also stayed on as a $250,000-a-year partner at his law firm, Kirkland & Ellis. It seemed too good to pass up–until Starr, to his surprise, found that his judgment was on trial.
All week, columnists and members of Congress eviscerated him for abandoning his post. White House flacks argued that Starr’s retreat was proof that after two and a half years and $20 million, he still hadn’t turned up anything on the Clintons. (The special prosecutor said that spin was ““dangerously’’ wrong.) Even Starr’s staff–some of whom learned about the decision to quit from televised news reports–were dumbstruck. His departure, they protested, would severely compromise the investigation, making it that much harder to persuade reluctant witnesses like Webster Hubbell and Susan McDougal to testify. In tense and pointed meetings, Starr’s chief deputy, John Bates, bluntly told Starr that he hadn’t thought out his decision carefully enough.
Starr was stunned. Close friends say he considered academia the next logical step in his career. He had once toyed with running for the U.S. Senate in Virginia. Some still mention him as a possible Supreme Court nominee in a future GOP administration. Perhaps, others say, Starr just wanted to escape the attacks–chiefly from James Carville–that he’s conducting a ““partisan witch hunt.’’ Whatever the reason, those closest to Starr say it simply didn’t occur to him that others might question his motives. ““There’s a real blind spot with Ken,’’ says one old friend.
Meanwhile, the prosecution goes forward. Starr will be bringing several former Clinton associates before a Little Rock grand jury in the next few weeks. In a sign that Starr may be expanding his scope, NEWSWEEK has learned, his office last week sent new subpoenas to White House aides asking for documents about John Huang, the former DNC fund raiser. Starr is reviewing possible charges against Hubbell for his murky consulting work for Huang’s old firm, the Lippo Group, after Hubbell left Justice. A host of other matters, from Hillary Clinton’s law practice to possible White House cover-ups, have yet to be resolved. Now that Starr is staying on, the issue is whether he can focus attention on the Clintons’ questionable judgments rather than his own.
