Lawrence Walsh, famous as the world’s worst-ever, least successful independent counsel, has slung another arrow at Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr. Walsh has been carrying Bill Clinton’s political baggage for more than three years now, ever since he chose October 30, 1992 — five days before the presidential election — to issue a dubious indictment of Cap Weinberger.
When Starr was first named to the Whitewater post, replacing Robert Fiske, Walsh dumped on Starr in print: inexperienced and too partisan, an altogether “terrible” appointment, he said. Now Walsh has done it again: on the front page of USA Today’s March 26 edition. Starr, it seems, in his private practice, represents a number of tobacco companies opposed to Clinton administration smoking proposals. Therefore, Walsh concludes, he has a conflict of interest. The connection raises “a question” about whether Starr is “corrupted” “as Whitewater’s prosecutor. No it doesn’t. Unless you believe, as Walsh’s argument implies, that Whitewater is a mirage created by tobacco companies intent on torpedoing Bill Clinton.
