Starr Report Raises Eyebrows Throughout County

They logged on, tuned in and dropped their jaws.

From water cooler to water’s edge, Kenneth Starr’s steamy report was Topic No. 1 in Ventura County on Friday.

In Oak Park, the school district advised teachers to avoid exposing their students to the 445-page report.

U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat representing Thousand Oaks, urged parents to keep their children off Web sites featuring the provocative document.

From its Ventura headquarters, Kinko’s announced the report may be viewed on computer at its 900 stores and that a bound edition would be available within hours.

But for all the attention, nobody could say that either the prosecutorial salvo or President Clinton’s response to it would change many minds.

“Democrats won’t change their party affiliations, but they’ll regret that they parked him there for a second term,” ventured Paul Montgomery, an insurance agent who had wandered into Ventura’s Computer Idiot Training Center with a few of his co-workers from their office nearby.

The center was offering free Internet access to Starr’s report. Visitors had logged on to every section describing a sexual encounter but none outlining the case’s background or the prosecutor’s methodology.

“They head right for the meat-and-potatoes without stopping to see how the table is set,” mused owner Martin Duran.

Lisa Bernard, an insurance agent from next door, scrolled through a section about one of the Oval Office trysts.

“Oh . . . my . . . God,” she said.

Her disbelief only grew.

“She thought he loved her!” she blurted.

And, scrolling down farther: “He said she made him feel young!”

But the soap-opera flourishes quickly turned to tough political talk.

“He’s just so arrogant,” Bernard said. “It all started with ‘I didn’t inhale.’ He just thinks he can keep getting away with this stuff.”

In light of Starr’s report, financial planner Bob West wryly wondered about the results of the 1996 election.

“I think the count must have been wrong,” he said. “I can’t find anyone today who voted for him.”

Even a few of Clinton’s unabashed supporters were having second thoughts about his remaining two years.

“I’m kind of stunned,” said Loretta Mitzenmacher, a children’s barber who lives aboard a boat at Channel Islands Harbor. “Before he loses whatever dignity he has left, he should resign.”

Like many others who were avidly following the scandal’s twists and turns, Mitzenmacher said too much had come out.

“Who wants to know what goes on behind their closed doors?” she asked.

Shirley Kelley felt much the same way.

“We’ve all sinned,” said Kelley, who sells plumbing supplies at Sears. “Every one of us has a skeleton in the closet. But your private life should not be public--period.”

But now that Clinton’s affair has been laid bare to all--and in eye-popping, heavy-breathing detail--the only logical path leads out, she said.

“If I were in his position, I’d resign. Everything would stop.”

At Express Shoe Repair in Ventura, Francisco Villanueva took a break and confessed that he had been too busy to follow the Clinton saga closely.

“But I’ll tell you something,” he said, voicing a thought that has been wafting through the airwaves of talk radio for months. “If I had done what he did, I’d be fired instantly--like this!”

Sipping an espresso at a Simi Valley cafe, a 21-year-old warehouse manager who identified himself only as Paco advised Clinton to hang in there.

“I don’t think the less of him at all, not in the slightest bit,” Paco said. “When I worked at Little Caesar’s and my paycheck went up a couple of quarters, that helped me out. What he’s doing in his personal life doesn’t matter.”

Even so, many people have expressed an interest ranging from mild curiosity to round-the-clock attachment to CNN. Conversations Friday drifted from Clinton’s troubles to Hillary’s trials to an almost universal sympathy for Chelsea. But talk of the report dominated the day.

Kinko’s, the copying giant based in Ventura, said bound copies would be sold at its stores for $35.

“I can’t think of another document in the public domain that has drawn such interest,” said spokeswoman Laura McCormack.

That intensity was just what worried officials at the Oak Park Unified School District. A memo from Supt. Marilyn Lippiatt deemed the Starr report “not appropriate curriculum material for Oak Park students at this time.” Lippiatt said teachers always try to bring relevant materials into their classrooms but the Starr report may be too explicit.

“I think a newspaper report may be sufficient to bring it forward as a current event,” she said.

That sentiment was echoed by Rep. Sherman, whose district spans parts of eastern Ventura County.

“This thing is salacious, and the level of graphic detail far exceeds what was legally necessary,” he said. “It’s not G-rated and it should have been and it could have been.”

Sherman said parents should “unplug their computers” until they can block Web sites that lead to the report.

While faulting Starr for the report’s tone, Sherman called Clinton’s behavior “reprehensible.”

Whether that will translate to “impeachable” remains to be seen. Sherman said he is eager to study Clinton’s rebuttals to Starr’s accusations of perjury and obstructing justice--charges more serious, in Sherman’s view, than “an inappropriate sexual relationship.”

Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, was not available Friday.

His spokesman Tom Pfeifer said more than 150 constituents have contacted the office. “The sentiment is growing more toward impeachment and resignation by the president,” he said.

Sherman said he would be happy to have Clinton’s help in his reelection bid. Callers have supported the president 4 to 1, he said.

But, he added, “I think everyone who called is at least disappointed by his actions. That’s really not the issue any more.”

Times Community News correspondents Regina Hong and Massie Ritsch contributed to this story.

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