By Various Sources
The fall from grace of Baylor school president Kenneth Starr gives credence to the adage that what goes around comes around.
Starr, as you will remember, was assigned to as an independent counsel to take over the investigation of the Whitewater real estate investments case being made against Bill and Hillary Clinton that was expanded to look into the suicide of White House Counsel Vince Foster.
Those probes gained no friction and, when it seemed like there was nothing for Starr to do but to lock up the office and leave, he was handed tapes made of Monica Lewinsky by a friend and leaked by a Republican Party operative.To make a really long story really short, he turned up nothing on Whitewater. He spent three years subpoenaing everyone he could think of, squeezing witnesses; he jailed a woman, Susan McDougal, for nearly two years, trying to get her to lie about Clinton, keeping her for a time in solitary confinement, even in a PlexiGlas cell, on display like an animal. The ACLU of Southern California called her treatment “barbaric.” But he had nothing. He even quit the gig in 1997, because he knew he had nothing, but The Wall Street Journal editorial page and Times columnist and GOP propagandist Bill Safire hounded him back into the job.
The three-judge panel charged with administering the Independent Counsel Act later expanded the inquiry into numerous areas including an extramarital affair that Bill Clinton had with Lewinsky.
After several years of investigation and a $70 million price tag, Starr filed the Starr Report, which alleged that Bill Clinton had lied about the existence of the affair during a sworn deposition. The allegation opened the door for the impeachment of Clinton which resulted in the five-year suspension of Clinton's law license.
Starr's conduct was reprehensible. He put dozens of totally innocent aides through legal hell. His office illegally leaked grand jury material left and right to friendly reporters. He lied repeatedly and publicly about Madison Guaranty, Susan McDougal and her ex-husband’s bank. And he wrapped himself in a cloak of self-righteousness the entire time, and the media, which had turned into a mob, was almost wholly on his side.
Which brings us to Baylor. Here’s a little summary of the series of allegations of sexual and other types of misconduct against Baylor football players. They are serious, and they were completely ignored by the football program and by Starr.
Remember, this is Texas. Football is a second religion. These kinds of things tend to be ignored, especially when the team’s been a winner, as Baylor has been. So you can imagine how bad things must be when even in Texas they start saying hey, this is getting a little embarrassing.Kenneth Starr said in an interview with Outside the Lines that he was resigning effective immediately "as a matter of conscience."
After an independent review of Baylor's response to sexual assault allegations, Starr was removed as school president last week, but he was being transitioned into a full-time chancellor role and was allowed to continue to teach at the law school. His duties as chancellor were to include external fundraising and religious liberty; he was to have no operational duties at the university.
On Wednesday, Starr called for transparency at Baylor. He said that "as each day goes by that need becomes more and more pressing."
"We need to put this horrible experience behind us," Starr said. "We need to be honest."
The fall from grace of Baylor school president Kenneth Starr gives credence to the adage that what goes around comes around.
Starr, as you will remember, was assigned to as an independent counsel to take over the investigation of the Whitewater real estate investments case being made against Bill and Hillary Clinton that was expanded to look into the suicide of White House Counsel Vince Foster.
Those probes gained no friction and, when it seemed like there was nothing for Starr to do but to lock up the office and leave, he was handed tapes made of Monica Lewinsky by a friend and leaked by a Republican Party operative.To make a really long story really short, he turned up nothing on Whitewater. He spent three years subpoenaing everyone he could think of, squeezing witnesses; he jailed a woman, Susan McDougal, for nearly two years, trying to get her to lie about Clinton, keeping her for a time in solitary confinement, even in a PlexiGlas cell, on display like an animal. The ACLU of Southern California called her treatment “barbaric.” But he had nothing. He even quit the gig in 1997, because he knew he had nothing, but The Wall Street Journal editorial page and Times columnist and GOP propagandist Bill Safire hounded him back into the job.The three-judge panel charged with administering the Independent Counsel Act later expanded the inquiry into numerous areas including an extramarital affair that Bill Clinton had with Lewinsky.
After several years of investigation and a $70 million price tag, Starr filed the Starr Report, which alleged that Bill Clinton had lied about the existence of the affair during a sworn deposition. The allegation opened the door for the impeachment of Clinton which resulted in the five-year suspension of Clinton's law license.
Starr's conduct was reprehensible. He put dozens of totally innocent aides through legal hell. His office illegally leaked grand jury material left and right to friendly reporters. He lied repeatedly and publicly about Madison Guaranty, Susan McDougal and her ex-husband’s bank. And he wrapped himself in a cloak of self-righteousness the entire time, and the media, which had turned into a mob, was almost wholly on his side.
Which brings us to Baylor. Here’s a little summary of the series of allegations of sexual and other types of misconduct against Baylor football players. They are serious, and they were completely ignored by the football program and by Starr.
Remember, this is Texas. Football is a second religion. These kinds of things tend to be ignored, especially when the team’s been a winner, as Baylor has been. So you can imagine how bad things must be when even in Texas they start saying hey, this is getting a little embarrassing.Kenneth Starr said in an interview with Outside the Lines that he was resigning effective immediately "as a matter of conscience."
After an independent review of Baylor's response to sexual assault allegations, Starr was removed as school president last week, but he was being transitioned into a full-time chancellor role and was allowed to continue to teach at the law school. His duties as chancellor were to include external fundraising and religious liberty; he was to have no operational duties at the university.
On Wednesday, Starr called for transparency at Baylor. He said that "as each day goes by that need becomes more and more pressing."
"We need to put this horrible experience behind us," Starr said. "We need to be honest."
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