Thursday, May 15, 1997

Fish Or Cut Bait: It's time for Starr to put up or shut up

By SANDY GRADY / Philadelphia Daily News.

WASHINGTON - In every poker game there's a moment when money's on the table, cards are dealt and you have to show your hand.

For Kenneth Starr, the talkative, touchy Whitewater independent counsel, the moment is here: Put up or shut up.

Time to show whether he's holding aces or bluffing. Starr has now spent $22 million and 22 months. He's employed an army of lawyers and FBI agents. He's sweated out two grand juries.

Face it, although he's nailed smaller prey, Starr's real targets have been Bill and Hillary Clinton. To bring down a president or first lady, ah, that's lasting glory.

If he has the goods on the First Couple or White House confederates - and I'm guessing he doesn't - it's time for Starr to hammer out indictments. Or make a final report to the three-judge panel that appointed him. Time for closure. Starr, noisiest independent counsel in memory, often pops up in public to hint he's on the trail of Something Big. He sounds like one of Raymond Chandler's private eyes trying to fox a client into paying his bar bills.

Coming up empty

There are signs Starr is coming up empty. Quietly and without fanfare - so stealthily the press didn't report it - Starr last week disbanded his Washington grand jury. He thanked the jurors who'd been on duty two years. Charges? Zilch.

Did this mean Starr was closing up shop? "No, on to Little Rock," he said briskly. His Arkansas grand jury, digging to determine where "hush money" was paid Clinton pal Webb Hubbell, may be Starr's end-zone stand. Doesn't mean he's given up his obsession with Hillary Clinton.

Starr wants notes of her conversations with government lawyers during her Washington grand jury appearances.

The Supreme Court may decide this lawyer/client stickler. But to pursue the first lady's private gab sounds like desperate fishing. Starr surrendered a chunk of public trust three months ago when he flukily quit for a job at Pepperdine College, then changed his mind amid right-wing howls. Maybe Starr, who moonlights as a law partner (1995 income, $956,601) at a big D.C. firm, couldn't face the pay cut. But as pursuer of the White House Couple, Starr has produced only bombast, veiled threats and menacing promises.

'Central figure'

He's called Hillary Clinton a "central figure" in his investigation, suggesting she's a spidery conspirator who juggles stories.

He's boasted that Jim McDougal, ailing, addled ex-Whitewater banker who sang for a lighter sentence, gave "voluminous, new and important" information.

He's bragged he has "extensive evidence" of obstruction of justice. He's savaged Susan McDougal, jailed in a 5-by-9 L.A. cell since Dec. 18 to break her silence, for wanting "a license to lie."

Starr has this tantalizing, cuckoo-clock way of popping off in speeches, then vanishing behind the steel, locked door of his office.

In February he was poised to announce his report on Clinton friend Vince Foster's death: No murder, no coverup. "It is accurate, fulsome and will be released shortly," said an L.A. Times source.

So far, no Foster report. Same for the Travelgate fiasco in which Hillary supposedly was a key player. Same for the Filegate mini-scandal involving 900 FBI files floating around the White House. Same for the mystery of Hillary's now-you-see'em Rose law records.

All we've reaped for our $22 million is Starr's smoke-and-mirrors act. Admirers toast Starr for deposing Arkansas governor Jim Guy Tucker and convicting Clinton ex-partners, the McDougals.

Big deal if Starr had been hired as Little Rock DA.

Sure, everybody's bored by constant squabbling between Starr, Clinton, White House lawyers and Clinton mouthpiece James Carville. And no doubt Clinton & Co. has looked clumsily suspicious, dribbling crumbs of information. But the country in the 1996 election showed it yawns over a Clinton role in a two-bit Arkansas land deal.

Who cares?

Starr's P.R. problem: He's being shuffled off the main stage. The Thompson and Burton committees wrestle away the spotlight when they confront those shadowy, Asian millions dumped into '96 campaigns.

Exit visa

"I think Starr is looking for an exit visa," said ex-White House lawyer Jack Quinn, no neutral observer. "Ken Starr has dug a dry well."

If true, here's what Starr should do: Make his final report to the three-judge panel. If he's uncovered evidence of wrongdoing by Bill, Hillary or other officials that's not strong enough for courtroom trial, lay out the hard facts.

Let Republicans in Congress parse Starr's findings and decide whether to yell for resignations or impeachment. Starr can read about it on the beach at Malibu.

We've had our $22 million worth - bloviations by Starr, hints of conspiracies and perjuries and coverups, yat-tat-tat between Clinton and the independent gumshoe. Seven hundred days is enough. Call it a wrap.

Time for Ken Starr to fish or cut bait.

Knight-Ridder Newspapers