Starr Admits Blunders in Clinton-Lewinsky Inquiry

If he could do it all over again, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr said Wednesday, he would have spun better and let someone else take on the Monica Lewinsky investigation.

With the clarity of hindsight, Starr said he realizes that his public silence about the ever-expanding, six-year probe fed a perception that he was waging “a vendetta” against the Clintons.

It was a “serious blunder,” he said, to also have taken on Travelgate and Filegate--investigations of the firings in the White House travel office and the discovery of FBI files on prominent Republicans in the Clinton White House.

Starr’s remarks came Wednesday during a downtown speech before city business and civic leaders. He later elaborated on them at a meeting with senior Times editors.

Recently, Starr, who in the past has spoken infrequently in public, has been carrying his message to a few carefully selected venues. Last week, he addressed students at Yale University, where he urged them not to grow cynical about pursuing careers in public service.

Starr said it is important to get his side of the story before the public so history can give this “unfortunate” chapter its proper place.

“It didn’t occur to me that I would be portrayed as a person with a vendetta,” Starr said. “I didn’t see it coming.”

With the Arkansas phase of the investigation closed, and two other probes winding down, Starr also seems eager to polish his image. He points with pride at his office’s record in the appellate courts: 20 for 20.

He began his campaign here at a luncheon hosted by Town Hall Los Angeles, where about 500 civic and business leaders gathered at the Hotel Inter-Continental. Outside, a lone picket circled: “Hey, Starr, Impeach This.”

“I feel that Ken Starr is a right-wing sociopath with an abnormal interest in other people’s sex lives and no regard at all for the Constitution,” said Jon Krampner, the man carrying the sign.

Starr acknowledges that such sentiments are held by many Americans and blames himself for not getting his message across.

Inside, the atmosphere was far friendlier. It was for the most part a buttoned-down crowd.

“I’m curious about what he has to say. He’s only done a couple of interviews,” said John Hutchison, whose career has taken him from the White House to The Mouse. A former advance man for the Bush administration, he now is a financial officer at Disney’s Buena Vista Television.

Some people wondered what Starr was doing in Los Angeles.

“You know what this is?” asked political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe. “This is a job interview. This is the rehabilitation of Ken Starr.”

Between forkfuls of baby spinach salad and almond-encrusted chicken, some of the guests remarked at the contrast between the humble man before them and the sex-obsessed, twirly-eyed zealot portrayed by pundits.

“I had expected some sort of madman,” said attorney Dana Reed. “He was incredibly moderate. I had expected a much more extreme person. I had expected this clown.”

Instead, Starr was earnest and affable, charming the locals by reminding them that two decades ago he had worked here as a young lawyer at the prestigious firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

He said he was on the way back here, to a dream job as the dean of Pepperdine University’s School of Law and Public Policy when Whitewater beckoned.

“A very unfunny thing happened on the way to Malibu,” he said. Later, at the meeting with Times editors, he responded, half ruefully, to a query about his lost Pepperdine opportunity: “You really know how to make a guy cry.”

Beyond the humor and the charm, he seemed very much the law school professor--talking with ease about the arcane points of the now-lapsed Independent Counsel Act, the law that propelled him, blinking, into the national spotlight.

At the luncheon, he again expressed his opposition to the 21-year-old statute, a byproduct of the Watergate scandal. It lapsed in June amid lack of congressional support.

“The statute simply does not work,” he said. “The Congress was trying in effect to create a separate branch of government.”

If he had to do it over again, Starr said, he would have passed on the tips that led to the probes known as Travelgate, Filegate and Monicagate. Each of them, he said, qualified for its own independent counsel.

The applause was hearty, the laughter genuine. At one point during a question-and-answer session, Starr paused, smiled and then remarked: “I think it’s a good thing when there’s greater laughter at the questions than at the answers.”

He was asked what he thought of Clinton. He said he admired his talent and energy but was less impressed by him personally.

“My real disappointment with our leader was when he took a poll on whether to tell the truth,” Starr said, abruptly concluding his remarks amid enthusiastic applause.

*

Audio of Kenneth W. Starr’s appearance at Town Hall L.A., as well his answers to selected LATimes.com user questions is available on The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/starr