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By Root 2146 0

Starr was impressed with Ewing’s strong record of pursuing public corruption. Starr also felt a special kinship with this Memphis lawman because Ewing was an unapologetic Christian who did not park his beliefs at the doorstep when he reported to work. Shortly after Ewing was hired, he was seated at breakfast with Starr at the Waffle House in West Little Rock. The wiry prosecutor removed a pen and sketched out a game plan for the Whitewater investigation on the back of his menu. At Starr’s request, Georgetown law professor Sam Dash had addressed the lawyers in Little Rock about ethics and prosecutorial techniques. Ewing now reflected on the serious task that lay before them. When it came to President and Mrs. Clinton, his candid view was, “Personally, I don’t think much of their politics, but again, I’m not a political-type person.” Ewing was concerned about making sure that both Clintons were forthcoming. “I prayed for them all the time,” he later explained. “I prayed that the truth would come out. I want[ed] to find out what happened.”

In sketching out an investigative plan for the Whitewater/Madison case, Ewing told his boss over breakfast, “Look, the way I pray is—it’s no mystery to God what happened to Vince Foster or what Bill did or what Hillary did. I pray that He’ll give us wisdom and disclose to us as much as we can handle in the plan of things.”

Folding up the rough plan contained on Ewing’s menu, the two men agreed that their overriding duty, in the months (or years) ahead, was to push over every rock in looking for the truth.

STARR’S second major appointment in Little Rock was Jackie Bennett, a towering six-foot-three man who grew up in a blue-collar family outside Indianapolis and then moved to the river town of Madison, Indiana, to attend Hanover College. Bennett played tight end on the football team, excelled at Indiana University Law School, clerked for several judges, and prosecuted criminals in the U.S. Attorney’s Office near home. He then caught the bug to move beyond the world of railroads and metal works, accepting an offer to join the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department in Washington, a huge honor for a small-town boy from Indiana. Bennett’s feeling was, “DOJ can show me the world.”

The newly formed Public Integrity Section, born of the Watergate era, when American citizens had developed a distrust for elected officials, was a perfect fit for Bennett. Originally a Democrat, he had switched his registration to Republican when he became disillusioned with the wishy-washy policies of the Carter administration. Now, moving to Washington in the midst of the transition from the Reagan to the Bush presidencies, Bennett felt at home. He saw himself, above all, as a federal prosecutor who put criminals behind bars without regard to political affiliation. Bennett had prosecuted Senator David Durenberger of Minnesota, a Republican who had used public tax dollars to pay the mortgage on a condo and then submitted false vouchers, and convicted Texas Democratic Congressman Albert Bustamante on racketeering and bribery charges. For this last effort, Bennett received a prestigious John Marshall Award, bestowed by President Clinton’s newly appointed attorney general, Janet Reno.

In his soul, Bennett believed that Public Integrity prosecutors were a distinctive breed. “We prided ourselves on being the storm troopers who had to sort of parachute into a political hot spot,” he said, spelling out his job description. Based on their grit and nonpolitical orientation, lawyers in Public Integrity were entrusted to handle the most sensitive cases, an assignment that he loved.

Outwardly gruff but inwardly gentle, Bennett disarmed opponents with his blunt style. Speaking years after the Whitewater and Lewinsky cases had left scars on his psyche, Bennett freely admitted that he had grown to become disenchanted with the Public Integrity Section after the Clinton crowd took over. During the Reagan and Bush years, Bennett felt, there had been a “different tone in Washington,” at least “at a moral level.” He