Bob Woodward reports in the Washington Post that independent counsel Ken Starr’s office has been interviewing people about Bill Clinton’s “private life.” The White House responds with outrage that looks orchestrated. Starr, for his part, says his investigators have done no such thing.
Where does this leave matters, besides confused? In principle, most of us would probably go along with the president’s friends and agree that prosecutors should show restraint in their investigations. Restraint is a good thing, after all. It’s even a good thing for people who aren’t prosecutors, and not just in the public sphere. For that matter, most of us would probably agree that even presidents have a “private life,” and that the distinction between private and public is worth upholding.
Too bad the president doesn’t feel the same way. The latest evidence of his own lack of restraint, and his persistence in conducting his “private” affairs in at least the semi-public eye, comes from Washingtonian magazine, which reports in its July issue on an encounter at last April’s White House correspondents’ dinner. After Clinton finished chatting to “an attractive woman” in a roped-off buffer area, he summoned a photographer standing nearby. The photographer was Larry Downing of Newsweek, but because he was wearing a Secret Service pin occasionally provided to members of the media, Clinton apparently thought Downing was a member of the security detail. So the president asked Downing to procure a business card from the woman. Downing dutifully carried out the president’s request, but before handing the card to Clinton he ran it by an agent of the Secret Service, which generally tries to prevent people from handing items to the president. This made Clinton none too happy, and he let Downing have it: “You don’t have to ask for permission when I tell you to do something. This is my life, and nobody’s going to tell me what to do.” Spoken like a true gentleman.
