Event From the 1960s to the 1980s

¶ … 1960's through the 1980's (and Beyond)

The chosen historical event is actually a 4 1/2-year phenomenon: Kenneth Starr's extensive investigation of President and Mrs. William Clinton, culminating in the impeachment of President Clinton. Given the leeway of choosing an event from later than the 1960s through the 1980s, an event was chosen from the 1990s. The choice was not necessarily made due to the writer's relative youth but due to the searing controversy and clear memory of the event. Patterson's recollection of the event is genteel compared to the acidic nastiness and political maneuvering recalled by this writer.

The appointment of Independent Counsel for investigation and possible prosecution was authorized by the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, passed in at least partial reaction to the Watergate Scandal.[footnoteRef:1] According to Patterson, this appointment was used by conservative members of Congress to counter the political savvy of President William Clinton, "who gave as good as he got" against them.[footnoteRef:2] Conservative Congressmen used Independent Counsel for "a politics of R.I.P. -- Revelation, Investigation, Prosecution"[footnoteRef:3] against the Clinton Administration. By August of 1994, 5 independent counsels had already investigated the Cabinet of President William Clinton, resulting in the resignation of 2 Cabinet members but no findings of wrongdoing on the part of the Clintons.[footnoteRef:4] Patterson deems this "weapon" often used and sometimes abused, citing the example of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.[footnoteRef:5] In August of 1994, Kenneth Starr, a notable Republican attorney, was appointed to replace Carlton Fiske as Independent Counsel.[footnoteRef:6] Patterson states that Starr proved to be a highly partisan Independent Counsel who spent years investigating "Whitewater," "Travelgate," "Filegate," and the President's reported extramarital sexual dalliances.[footnoteRef:7] According to Patterson, Starr's investigations initiated 22 prosecutions, resulting only in the President's eventual impeachment for the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and the President's felonious denial under oath that he had sexual relations with Lewinsky.[footnoteRef:8] Ultimately, according to Patterson, the President was not ousted from office but his law license was suspended for 5 years, while Starr was deemed a "prudish, sanctimonious, and vindictive"[footnoteRef:9] so-called Independent Counsel who raised a sex scandal to the level of a "constitutional crisis."[footnoteRef:10] Though Patterson addresses specifics of the event, he clearly leans toward a more politically liberal version that denounces Kenneth Starr as a partisan player in 1990s American politics. [1: James T. Patterson. Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005, p. x.] [2: Ibid.] [3: Ibid.] [4: Ibid.] [5: Ibid., p. 86.] [6: Ibid., p. x.] [7: Ibid.] [8: Ibid., p. 394.] [9: Ibid.] [10: Ibid., p. x.]

The writer's recollection of the Starr-Clinton struggle is even nastier and more politically divisive than Patterson reports, supported by the slew of ensuing books and commentaries about the situation. Starr was highly controversial and was, himself, attacked during and after the investigations. On the one hand, outspoken liberals deemed Starr "a partisan, sex-obsessed crackpot of a GOP hatchet man"[footnoteRef:11] who engaged in excruciatingly petty, ongoing attacks on the Clintons. For example, Starr subpoenaed the First Lady to testify before a federal grand jury to explain her story about records long-ago subpoenaed and found in a White House storage closet -- reportedly a spiteful move to publicly embarrass the First Lady.[footnoteRef:12] On the other hand, outspoken conservatives claimed that Starr was forthright, upright attorney whose main failing was his political naivete.[footnoteRef:13] According to those sources, Starr's rightful dedication to uncovering the truth subjected him to a "political jihad" by the politically adept Clintons and their supporters who, for example, explored the possibility that Starr had a paramour of his own in order to politically ruin him.[footnoteRef:14] In sum, Patterson's recollection of the "event" is tame compared to the bare-fanged political nastiness and maneuvers seared into the writer's memory. [11: James Carville. ..and the Horse He Rode In On: The People V. Kenneth Starr. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1998, p. 158.] [12: John F. Harris. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House. New York, NY: Random House, 2005, p. 225.] [13: Susan Schmidt and Michael Weisskopf. Truth at Any Cost: Ken Starr and the Unmaking of Bill Clinton. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2000, p. 14.] [14: Ibid.]