Victimhood
The Wall Street Journal [ The Interactive Edition ]
July 9th , 1998 The Editorial Board [ Fund , Bartley , Rabinowitz , and Company ]
The Clinton spin machine has succeeded splendidly in
turning Paula Jones, Linda Tripp and above all Kenneth
Starr into villains. As an encore, it now presents Susan
McDougal and Webster Hubbell as victims , not as felons .
And it is standing by pending the decision on which
way to spin Monica Lewinsky .
Mrs. McDougal has been assiduously courting victimhood
since parading in chains outside of one of her various
courtrooms some three years ago--her best publicity shot
since riding a white stallion in hotpants to publicize
Whitewater real estate. Her endless jailhouse interviews
have complained of persecution ( and , at one point
accused Jeff Gerth of the New York Times of bribing
her late husband ) Most recently , she persuaded a
judge to release her from jail for better treatment
of a bad back -- a decision widely billed as
a setback for Independent Counsel Starr .
Next week Mrs. McDougal is slated for another trial
before another prosecutor, the Los Angeles County bunco
squad having nabbed her for allegedly bilking Zubin Mehta
and his wife through a credit card scam . Earlier , of
course , an Arkansas jury convicted her of fraud in the
original Whitewater transactions , along with Jim McDougal
and former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker . When asked
whether the President's testimony at that trial was
truthful , she refused to answer , and went to jail
to launch her victimhood campaign .
In the improbable victim contest , Judge James Robertson
has topped Susan with Webster Hubbell , former Sugar Bowl
tackle, former Justice Department major domo and convicted
embezzler from the Rose Law Firm . Poor Webb was double -
crossed by Mr . Starr , the judge ruled , over immunity
offered when he agreed to supply documents under subpoena .
The immunity issues are obscure , but what is a subpoena
for , if a prosecutor has to give immunity to get
documents ? In any event , Mr . Hubbell ' s wife , his
accountant and his lawyer were never promised immunity ,
so the case against them goes forward . A ruling limited
to the technicalities of immunity would mean that the
accomplices go to trial , while the principal goes
free , even though his own attorney specified he was
in fact guilty of not paying taxes on the money he
received from the Lippo Group and others , after being
run out of the Justice Department .
To dismiss the case entirely , Judge Robertson ruled
that the independent counsel didn't have jurisdiction
to prosecute Mr . Hubbell ' s tax crimes , overruling an
explicit mandate from the three-judge Special Division in
charge of Independent Counsels. The appellate judges on
the Special Division , the District Judge decided , did
not have the power to expand Mr. Starr's mandate without
a mother - may - I from Attorney General Janet Reno .
Facing the same issue , two prominent members of the
D . C . district bench , Royce Lamberth and Thomas
Penfield Jackson , had already come to precisely
the opposite conclusion. When Judge Henry Woods ruled
that Mr. Starr did not have the authority to bring a tax
case against Governor Tucker and two associates , the
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals not only overturned ,
but bounced Judge Woods right off the case . ( Judge
Woods was a long-time Clinton crony , while Judge
Robertson is merely a Clinton appointee . )
Judge Robertson's ruling will be appealed to the D.C.
Circuit, which is also the mother court of the Special
Division. A panel of this same court just unanimously
rejected the Administration's invention of a special
privilege for Secret Service officers. It ruled that
three Secret Service officers will have to answer Mr.
Starr's questions about whether the course of their
duties led them to hold discussions of Monica Lewinsky
and her presence around the Oval Office .
If they do offer embarrassing testimony, experience
suggests, the Secret Service agents can expect to be
slimed with anything available, including their own
personnel files. No one at the Pentagon has been
disciplined for the admittedly illegal release of material
from Ms . Tripp ' s files , but meanwhile she is being
investigated by a Democratic prosecutor in ever -
fastidious Maryland for taping her own phone calls .
Similarly, a Democratic prosecutor in Arkansas has
invoked seldom-used state insurance laws to bring charges
against David Hale, despite his immunity agreement as a
witness cooperating with Mr . Starr .
As for Ms. Lewinsky, even the departure of the unctuous
William Ginsburg and the arrival of a seasoned plea -
bargaining team does not seem to have ended the impasse .
As we read the tea leaves, she is willing to testify about
Presidential sex , but unwilling to say who was involved
in helping her draw up the " talking points " that she gave
Ms . Tripp instructing her to commit perjury in
the Paula Jones case. Mr. Starr is of course far more
interested in the latter. If, say, the President sent
her to Bruce Lindsey for legal instruction, both would
be involved in obstruction of justice; this in turn
would cast serious shadows over the Administration ' s
administration of justice in Whitewater, campaign
finance, the FBI files and other matters that
far transcend sexual peccadilloes .
Pending Ms. Lewinsky's decision to cooperate or pull a
Susan McDougal, the spin machine is warming up both the
villain and victim ramps, ready alternatively to blacken
Mr. Starr for picking on a young thing, or slime Ms.
Lewinsky as a Vanity Fair exhibitionist. Our advice to
the independent counsel would be that the White House
cannot drive his poll ratings much lower, and that
he should indict the little tart , and get the show
on the road .
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