Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [393]
Matters only worsened for Starr’s office when Congress released the videotape of President Clinton testifying in front of the grand jury. OIC had refused to discard the tape after showing it to the absent grand juror, declaring: “We cannot and will not destroy evidence of a crime.” So Clinton’s political team had allowed conservative media pundits to run wild with stories that the president had misbehaved during his testimony, “lost his temper” in a fit of rage, and committed transgressions against God and humanity. As one political adviser would explain the strategy with a smile: “When the actual testimony itself was released … [President Clinton’s] performance and the expectations set prior to people watching his performance were such that we actually did quite well.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer called the release of the tape a major “blunder.” Paul Rosenzweig, one of the few OIC prosecutors who adamantly opposed its release, later said with an audible sigh, “We got our butts kicked.”
Starr’s office suffered another setback when Congress chose to release the fat evidentiary record that had accompanied his report. David Kendall swiftly purchased dozens of magnifying glasses, dispensing them to an army of lawyers and paralegals who began combing through thousands of pages of miniature print in the appendixes, in order to identify exculpatory material and details that provided a less nefarious context to many of Starr’s accusations against the president. The Starr prosecutors, Kendall’s team quickly announced, had “cherry-picked” the most damaging snippets of testimony. The media was beginning to reach the same conclusion, “contextualizing” the Starr Report and concluding that it was grossly one-sided.
Ken Starr did his best to put on a happy face. To the vice chancellor and dean emeritus of the Pepperdine Law School, where he had hoped to be ensconced as dean—rather than being mired in this ugly sex scandal—Starr wrote wistfully: “As the academic year begins, I cast an occasional thought westward, beyond the great spaces of our beloved Texas and out to the shores and surrounding hills that provide Pepperdine with its singularly blessed location. We genuinely wish we were with you, but duty and providence have determined otherwise. I cheerfully accept the result, seeking ever to bear in mind the admonition of all things working together for those who love our Lord.”
However optimistic Starr tried to remain, his resolve was not translating itself into public support. New polls showed President Clinton’s job approval ratings hovering at numbers above 60 percent. One question posed by Gallup/ CNN/ USA Today asked: “Based on what you know at this point, do you think that Bill Clinton should or should not be impeached and removed from office?” A whopping 66 percent of those polled answered: “Should not be.”
The Starr Report, in a word, was backfiring.
Even First Lady Hillary Clinton, who had ample motive to allow her husband to twist in the wind, seemed galvanized to support her unfaithful spouse, largely because he was doing battle with the ever-treacherous Ken Starr. Indeed, it was Hillary who played a key role in bucking up demoralized White House staffers, telling them to stand firm against the Starr forces. Paul Begala recalled that the First Lady was visibly in “a lot of pain.” Yet her willingness to demonstrate compassion and support for the shell-shocked White House troops, when she was hurt so deeply herself, caused many to say: “Well, if she can take it, I can take it.”
As one friend close to the president and First Lady explained Mrs. Clinton’s resolute mind-set, “Remember … she’s been harassed; her