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Crofton Online: Starr Watch
Republican Ken Starr to America: 'Screw you! I am above the law.'
Special prosecutor "threatens" Attorney General Reno

Republican pro-tobacco lobbyist Kenneth Starr yesterday [March 8, 1999] "threatened" Attorney General Janet Reno for beginning a Justice Department investigation into numerous felonies committed by Starr and his band of 'special prosecutors.' Starr, who has publicly acknowledged that he repeatedly leaked secret grand jury testimony to the tabloid press, apparently plans to sue anyone who attempts to hold him accountable for his criminal behavior.

Not surprisingly, the Republican party, now openly and completely controlled by extreme right wing religious zealots, continues to support Starr as part of its overall plan to sabotage the Independent Council law.

In addition to leaking the grand jury information, Starr held and interrogated innocent individuals, denying them access to their attorneys (a clear violation of both the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes); he falsified documents in his effort to gain jurisdiction over the President's sex life; he illegally met with private right-wing attorneys harassing the President in court; and he conspired with Linda Tripp to violate Maryland state law prohibiting taping of individuals without their consent.

None of these facts are in dispute. Starr, however, is desperately trying to head off efforts by the Justice Department to evaluate other potentially illegal activities which, if proven, would substantially increase the jail term now facing Starr.

If he manages to stop the investigation, Republican Starr will be able to retire in style on the five million dollars (paid to him by the tobacco industry while he was on the public payroll prying into the private life of the President!) after serving a short token jail term.

Ironically, the same Republicans who are arguing that Starr is above the law, repeatedly criticized the President last year, accusing him of acting like he was above the law, even though he submitted to the process at every step of the way.

Understandably, most Americans seem to just want all of this to go away. However, these issues are important in how history will record events of the past year. The system has found President Clinton innocent of all charges against him, a fact that historians will find hard to ignore. A long jail term for Starr will make it even more difficult for revisionist historians to write up these events as anything but the sexual McCarthyism that they clearly represent.

As always, we welcome your comments.

The GOP and the Teletubbies
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