Starr's Wars, Episode II - Letters

Washington Monthly, July-August, 2002 by Reba Shimansky

I was outraged that the editors of The Washington Monthly assigned Michael Isikoff to review Benjamin Wittes's book about Ken Starr ("Starr's War," May). Have you already forgotten that Isikoff was an all too willing ally of the loathsome Lucianne Goldberg in her effort to destroy President Clinton and his presidency? Isikoff writes that Starr was never a rabid partisan.

At the time of his appointment as special prosecutor, Starr may not have had a reputation as a partisan, but that does not change the fact that he was one: He was a member of the right-wing legal group, the Federalist Society, and an advocate for Paula Jones. I first saw him on the "MacNeil Lehrer NewsHour" defending Jones's right to sue Clinton. The intensity of his hatred toward the president left an indelible impression, and rendered him unable to conduct an impartial investigation. The only reason that James McDougal, after his conviction, backed up David Hale's story about the $300,000 loan given to his wife Susan was to reduce his sentence, which was more than 80 years. McDougal was not a convicted felon at the time he ran Madison Guarantee. The Whitewater allegations against them were all smoke and mirrors sustained by a media all too eager to believe anything negative about the Clintons. It is too bad those same standards do not apply President Bush and his ties to Enron.

REBA SHIMANSKY
Brooklyn, N. Y.