Seems the word is finally getting around, from the NYT:
February 11, 1998
Kenneth Starr and His Watergate Star
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
WASHINGTON -- If there have not been enough reminders of
Watergate lately, Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel,
brought another one with him to court Tuesday morning.
Starr's companion at the courthouse was Samuel Dash, a hero to pursuers
of a different president, Richard M. Nixon. If Dash's presence alongside
the embattled independent counsel was intended as an act of political
symbolism, it was at least as blunt as any father-daughter picture from the
White House.
Dash, a Democrat who is now 72, was the chief counsel to the Senate
Watergate Committee a quarter of a century ago and, because of
television coverage of those hearings, something of a government integrity
celebrity. Critics of Starr have suggested that he associates himself with
Dash to cloak himself in the credibility of the Watergate inquiry.
Tuesday, Dash looked older and balder than the last time he was on the
national stage. But he still looked enough like the man in heavily framed
glasses who used to whisper in the ear of the legendary chairman of the
Watergate Committee, Sen. Sam Ervin Jr., to make a visual point for
Starr.
For students of Whitewater, Dash's appearance was not surprising. Since
1994, Dash has been a part-time ethics adviser to Starr, rendering
opinions on the many assaults on Starr's fairness.
Since he has always seemed to clear Starr of accusations against him,
Dash has sometimes been ridiculed by Clinton's supporters. James
Carville, one of those taking part in the White House's attack, has
accused Dash of bringing a Mad magazine standard of ethics to Starr's
investigation. Carville once said Dash was the "Alfred E. Neuman of
ethics counselors. He doesn't worry about anything."
Dash, a one-time Philadelphia district attorney who has been a law
professor at Georgetown University Law Center for more than 30 years,
has sometimes appeared uncomfortable as an ally of Starr.
But, particularly when Starr has been under attack, Dash has defended
him. In an interview two weeks ago he dismissed critics who said Starr
was being too aggressive in pursuing the accusations involving Monica
Lewinsky.
"He's very rule-of-law oriented," Dash said of Starr. For Washington
lawyers, that was tantamount to: He's a guy who can be trusted.
It wasn't just what was said, though, it was who was saying it and about
whom: the famous former Watergate counsel about the besieged
Whitewater independent counsel.
nytimes.com |
