Death of American Virtue - Ken Gormley [98]
Away from the cameras and microphones, however, President Clinton was not at all sanguine about the selection. He would later say, “They did whatever they could to rig the game. That’s what they did. And you had five former presidents of the American Bar Association saying it was inappropriate. He [Starr] obviously had no business being involved in this case. He was clearly biased, and he clearly had never had any prosecutorial experience. But he was a good guy to direct the hunt.”
For Clinton, the purpose of the investigation was now clear as crystal. “You know,” he said, stroking his chin, “after Starr came in, there was no pretext about what he and all of his supporters were doing. I felt they were Wile E. Coyote in the pack and I was the Road Runner. And the chase was on.”
A teenage Bill Clinton, circa 1963, celebrates Christmas with his mother, Virginia, at their Hot Springs home. William J. Clinton Presidential Library
Governor Bill Clinton receives a hug from daughter Chelsea and wife Hillary on the steps of the historic Old State House in Little Rock, Arkansas, after Clinton announces his candidacy for the presidency on October 3, 1991. Cynthia Johnson/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Kenneth W. Starr, appointed United States Solicitor General by President George H. W. Bush in 1989, stands in front of the Supreme Court dressed in his formal swallow-tailed coat prior to an oral argument. Starr was appointed a federal appeals judge (at age thirty-seven) in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan; the Bush administration then persuaded Starr to leave the bench to accept the solicitor general post, strongly hinting that he would be on the short list for appointment to the high court. Starr was replaced as solicitor general when President Bill Clinton took office in 1993.
INSET: Ken Starr’s freshman photo in the Harding College yearbook. Starr attended this conservative Christian college in Searcy, Arkansas, for two years in the mid-1960s before transferring to George Washington University in the nation’s capital to pursue an interest in political science and government service. Courtesy of Harding University
Jim McDougal and his young bride, Susan, cut the cake on their wedding day on May 23, 1976. In attendance were political luminaries, including soon-to-be Arkansas attorney general Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham, as well as future congressman Jim Guy Tucker. After the wedding, Jim McDougal told Susan that he wanted them to go into the real estate business together. Courtesy of Susan McDougal
The original Whitewater sales brochure designed by Susan McDougal circa 1978 advertised a getaway destination that was “quiet, peaceful, serene, simple and honest,” promising: “One weekend here and you’ll never want to live anywhere else.” The Clintons became partners in this real estate investment with Jim and Susan McDougal. In short order, the Whitewater venture went belly-up. Courtesy of Susan McDougal
Letter from Bill Clinton, candidate for state attorney general, to his friend and political supporter Jim McDougal. The tongue-in-cheek handwritten note reads: “You are a great American who will live long in the hearts of your countrymen, your words carved in stone by devoted followers and members of the prison work gang …” Courtesy of Susan McDougal
As part of Jim McDougal’s grand plan to build a real estate and financial empire, he purchased an abandoned laundry building in a run-down section of Little Rock and transformed it into the opulent Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan offices, painted a bright purple-pink and deco rated in an Art Deco style. It was primarily the question able dealings of Madison S & L that sparked a federal investigation of the McDougals’ business practices, tangling up Bill and Hillary Clinton in the probe. © 2009 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Even as his business ventures were in trouble, Jim McDougal became a candidate for Congress in Arkansas’s third district. By this point in early