Starr and Foster: The Increasingly High Price of Public Service

Kenneth W. Starr finally issued his own report on Vincent W. Foster Jr. last week, concluding, as did his predecessor, that the former White House aide committed suicide, and there was no foul play and no cover-up surrounding his death. The Foster tragedy makes painfully clear how high the cost of public service can be. But it is Starr’s own decisions in the last two weeks that drive home the other half of the lesson: While the costs have never been higher, the expectations have never been lower.

A respected lawyer in Arkansas before coming to the White House as deputy counsel, Foster was plainly out of his element in the cannibalistic culture of Washington, where every misstep is fodder for partisan ridicule. Foster was pilloried for his role in the White House travel-office firings; ironically, Starr’s investigations into those firings, also reported last week, concluded there had been no criminal wrongdoing. Too late for Foster. He took his life because of mental illness, but public service took its toll. The target of conservative editorials in life, in death Foster became the centerpiece of conservative conspiracy theorists. They could not believe the obvious: Foster killed himself. Did they think it was just a game? He was not even allowed to rest in peace.

Most people only get killed figuratively. Public service brings with it a level of scrutiny and vulnerability that far exceeds what is imposed on top corporate leaders. To be a friend of President Bill Clinton or, worse, a former partner of his or his wife’s, is to be an almost certain target of permanent investigation.

In this partisan search-and-destroy game, anyone close to the president must have a lawyer, and so must anyone who takes on the president. Mid-level White House aides have six-figure legal bills. House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s will be higher than that. Henry G. Cisneros, former housing and human development secretary, cited the costs of defending himself against a still-pending independent investigation of how generous he was to a former mistress as one reason he could no longer afford to serve in public office.

Elective office is even more brutal. What is most shocking about the latest round of disclosures from the White House is that, with everything the Democrats did to raise money for the ’96

campaign, the Republicans still raised more. To run for office in America, for all but the very rich, is a commitment to a life of panhandling in fancy neighborhoods, using or being used.

To be sure, Senate seats are not going wanting, and the Cabinet is full. But if you look around this nation, look around any state or even any city, with too few exceptions, the most talented people are not in public service. My best students don’t aspire to careers in politics or public service--not because they don’t care, but because most of them are far too sensible.

In some respects, Starr seems to be an exception to this rule. He is, by all accounts, a brilliant lawyer. But unlike many of his predecessors, he is not a distinguished elder above the fray; he is, rather, a political comer, a favorite of conservatives and a much-mentioned Supreme Court possibility. He was appointed by a three-judge panel with close ties to his conservative patrons; the panel had been expected to reappoint his predecessor, the distinguished and more senior Robert B. Fiske Jr., and Starr’s surprise appointment was hailed as a victory for the right.

If ever there were an independent counsel who needed to make clear that he was indeed independent--not only of the White House but also of its political opponents--it was Starr. Instead, against the advice of his predecessors and his own ethics counsel, he continued to represent private clients who were actively opposing the administration’s policies. This past year, while investigating the president, he reportedly was responsible for $1 million in billings for his firm.

President Richard M. Nixon could never have gotten away with having one of his political henchmen attack Archibald Cox as James Carville did Starr, but that is not because of ideological bias. Cox was above reproach. Starr didn’t try to be. Not only did he continue his private practice, but he played the same game as Carville, taking to the stump on Pat Robertson’s home turf to debate Carville’s charges.

Is it too much to expect that an independent counsel be independent of all sides? Is it too much to ask that he give full time to his investigation of the president and first lady, and sacrifice his private practice? Is it too much to hope that he would--at least while serving--put public service ahead of career?

Despite his protestations, Starr’s recent announcement that he would leave for Pepperdine--for a position funded, in part, by one of the mainstays of the anti-Clinton conservative conspiracy crowd--was interpreted as an acknowledgment that there would be no indictment of either Clinton, which may well be the real reason for the uproar in some quarters. Starr made plain that he had continued to consult about the investigation with the judges who had appointed him, and they knew of his plans to leave. Presumably, were there a constitutional crisis in the offing, someone would have suggested he stay. But if any such decision has been reached, it ought to be announced on its own terms, not read in the tea leaves of a career track.

Last week, back on the job again as independent counsel for the indefinite future, Starr was, nonetheless, off the job again--arguing in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Hughes Electronics against a whistle blower alleging the defense contractor bilked the government on the B-2 bomber. It is an important case for the defense industry, and presumably Starr prepared for it carefully.

The greatest power a prosecutor has is the power to lift the shadow of doubt. That is what Starr did last week in the Foster case. When that shadow is cast on the president, it is in the public interest that, if it is to be lifted, it be done sooner, not later. Is that too much for the nation to expect?*