Whitewater Forever

Now’s a good time to take stock of Whitewater developments. At last, something in the case came to an end: The grand jury assembled in Little Rock since February 1994 was dismissed this week.

Whitewater started out as an Arkansas land deal gone bad in the days when Bill Clinton was the governor. After issuing subpoenas to half of Arkansas, the jury failed to indict the Clintons. But the net caught a group of Razorbacks, including Webster L. Hubbell and James and Susan McDougal.

Little Rock was not really a conclusion, however. The office of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr says that any of the jury’s loose ends will merely be transferred to Washington, where Starr has another grand jury looking into all manner of things.

In fact, White House sources tell The Times’ Washington bureau that Starr may be dogging Bill Clinton through the end of his term and perhaps beyond. That means into the next century. One Clinton advisor said: “This is World War I trench warfare.”

That’s depressing. Not that we don’t want to see any legitimate issue thoroughly investigated and prosecuted if warranted. But Whitewater seems to have taken on a life of its own. Could Starr, now that he’s hired a spokesman, give us some hint of just what it is he’s after and when he might get it? Or when he’ll quit if it becomes clear he’s not going to get it?

Starr is still investigating the White House FBI files case, the Rose law firm bills, Monica Lewinsky and assorted other matters. He has reached one conclusion: that White House lawyer Vincent Foster did commit suicide. But now he and Clinton have locked horns over executive privilege, the leaking of grand jury testimony and other matters.

At one point a year ago, we thought Whitewater was near an end when Starr announced he was planning to step down to take a dean’s job at Pepperdine University. Then he postponed that. Now, Starr says he’s not coming to Pepperdine at all.

There was another seeming conclusion when an Arkansas judge dismissed the Paula Corbin Jones harassment suit against Clinton (connected to Starr’s probes via Monica Lewinsky). That seemed to be something of a turning point. But Jones has decided to appeal.

Webster Hubbell has been indicted again on tax evasion charges and Susan McDougal indicted for criminal contempt for refusing to answer grand jury questions. McDougal, imprisoned on charges related to an illegal loan, has already served an 18-month civil contempt term for refusing to answer similar questions.

There, now. Is it all clear?