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’s strong desire to air her findings, given the public nature of the Monica Lewinsky investigation. Although this fact was not generally known, Ray even proposed attaching the Harris report to his own final report to Congress, allowing it to become public in this fashion. One of his own OIC prosecutors hired an attorney to block this release. In the end, Ray concluded there was no “perfect solution” to the dilemma. OPR reports involving alleged professional misconduct were not typically dumped into the public domain—especially if there was no finding of wrongdoing. Prosecutors’ reputations were at stake, and there were privacy concerns to worry about. This situation was even more sticky because only one OIC prosecutor involved in the sting still worked for the Justice Department and was subject to its regulations; it seemed unfair to tar this person alone with the brush of the Harris report findings when many other OIC prosecutors, including Ken Starr himself, deserved to shoulder some of the responsibility for the office’s poor decision-making. Ray concluded that “reasonable minds can disagree” on the appropriate way to deal with such a sensitive situation. “I wasn’t going to make the call whether [the Harris report] should be released or not released,” he said. “The way to handle it was to put it in the court’s hands.”

Harris, on the other hand, reached a professional and moral judgment that this information should not be hidden any longer. “I feel pretty free talking about this,” she concluded, taking a break from her teaching and trial work. The “final bottom line” of Harris’s extensive investigation was crystal clear, and she felt strongly that American citizens were entitled to know about it. “There was one person who was senior and in charge and ought to have shown better judgment,” Harris said, “[and] the office itself did not cover itself with glory.”

THE Monica Lewinsky saga was not the only aspect of the Clinton-Starr drama that produced recriminations long after the bucking bronco of history had thrown its riders from its saddle.

The failed effort by the House managers to impeach and remove President Clinton led to plenty of finger-pointing. Like the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson more than a century earlier, the unsuccessful drive to remove Clinton had left the House managers looking unduly partisan and lacking sound judgment to many; yet the managers themselves did not see it that way.

Henry Hyde, sitting back in his suburban Illinois office looking relaxed and eager to begin his retirement from public office, shortly before his unexpected death in 2007, defended the work of his House managers till the very end. This dedicated “band of brothers,” Hyde insisted, had done the right thing by ignoring the fickle winds of popular sentiment. The former lead House manager even expressed sympathy for Monica Lewinsky, who was denied attorney’s fees under the independent counsel law after cooperating with Ken Starr and who ended up being stung badly as a result of entrusting her heart to Bill Clinton. “She got into a hornet’s nest and could be carrying this around the rest of her life,” said Hyde. “I think to some extent, she was victimized.”

Jutting a thumb under his suspenders, Hyde went on: “This whole saga ends up with Mr. Clinton still making all kinds of dough, being idolized by his clique, but the man has an asterisk after his name in every history book that he was impeached.” He added: “[Clinton has had] his lawyer’s license suspended. Not only that, but he was fined by a federal judge. Not only that, but he settled the case with Paula Jones for no small amount of money… all of that is on his side of the ledger.”

On the House managers’ side of the ledger, Hyde felt, there was nothing to record for posterity except that they had acted honorably and out of a patriotic sense of duty. Hyde stood up, tugging on his suspenders to hide his weight problem, which was expertly hidden by his tailor. He walked toward a special spot on the wall and removed a framed citation signed by Chief Justice Rehnquist