WASHINGTON INSIGHT

CLOSE TO HOME: When Democrats need a private investigator to dig up dirt on the opposition or pursue a sensitive political matter, they often turn to Terry F. Lenzner and his Washington-based sleuths, Investigative Group Inc. IGI’s latest client is Williams & Connolly, the law firm representing President Clinton in independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr’s investigation of allegations that the president committed perjury when he denied having a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky and also urged her to lie about it. Lenzner may want to check out stories circulating among friends of his son, Jonathan Lenzner, that Jonathan dated Lewinsky. In an interview, the younger Lenzner, an aide to Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-Conn.), said he has never met Lewinsky.

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SCANDAL U.: Come September, Carolyn Starr--daughter of the special prosecutor--will join First Daughter Chelsea Clinton at Stanford University. Although Ken Starr’s ever-broadening role has arguably made him the president’s biggest foe, the two daughters don’t know each other. Carolyn says her decision to attend Stanford had nothing to do with Chelsea, but that she was impressed on a recent visit to the Palo Alto campus to see Chelsea standing undisturbed in a dorm cafeteria lunch line. And although Starr’s daughter insists she wants to be known as “just Carolyn” when she gets to the prestigious university, she was mobbed by alumni and other incoming freshmen at a local reception Sunday. In fact, a child of the chaser-in-chief may be a bigger campus draw than the offspring of government officials. Perhaps 1997 Stanford graduate Mercedes Cisneros and junior T.J. Babbitt should advertise the fact that their fathers--former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt--have been targeted by other independent counsels.

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STARR-CROSSED: With his subpoenas flying all over town and witnesses parading before a federal grand jury, some might think independent counsel Starr is a busy person. They don’t know the half of it: When he’s not investigating alleged Oval Office escapades, Starr still is a practicing corporate lawyer. Last month he filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Supreme Court on behalf of General Motors Corp., urging the justices to block a lawsuit filed by parents whose daughter was thrown from a speedboat and killed by a propeller. And on Feb. 5, he filed an appeal in the Supreme Court on behalf of Hughes Aircraft Co., which is fighting some of its retirees over their pension benefits. Starr, who receives a $1.1-million salary from his law firm, says the retirees are seeking “a pot of gold to which they are not entitled.”

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POPPING THE QUESTION: It’s hard to know which is more remarkable: That one Sandra Rupprecht of Chatsworth contacted the offices of all 100 U.S. senators to ask if they had “ever had an extramarital affair while holding any public office”--or that she claims to be genuinely stunned that senators were not tripping over one another to take her call. “I asked to speak with each senator, but never got past their public relations people or office staffers,” she huffs. Only nine offices responded--”in each case it was an emphatic NO!” she says. The office of John B. Breaux (D-La.) “simply hung up on [her]--twice!”; the staff of Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) was “offended by the question” but answered no; representatives for James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) called the question “ridiculous”; and the office of Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) asked if others had actually answered the question (he still hasn’t).