                     | Sam Dash Becomes Starr-Gate's Howard Baker Friday, November 20, 1998 --- New York (APJP) -- Someone should have warned the conservative talking heads to be careful what they wish for -- they may just get it! About four months ago, a number of right-wing talking heads -- including but certainly not limited to Laura Ingraham, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, Oliver North, Whitney Adams, Rush Limbaugh, Barbara Olson and a host of others -- suddenly started pushing a new spin line: "When will a Democrat step forward in this crisis? Where is this crisis' Howard Baker?" Baker, for those of you too young to remember, was the first Republican in Congress to "break" from the party early into Richard Nixon's second term, at the height of the Watergate scandal, and "turn" on the President. Baker will forever be remembered for putting principle and ethics above partisanship, and is frequently credited with starting the ball rolling in earnest on a bipartisan effort to impeach Nixon. The "Howard Baker" line always got a chuckle out of us -- especially after one of the various blonde Independent Women's Forum clones (The Doc cannot remember which) said on the day after Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman gave his scorching denunciation of Clinton on the floor of the Senate, "It's still not enough. Where is the Democrat's Howard Baker?" Well, politics fans, we have him. A Democrat has finally turned. His name is Sam Dash. He was ethics advisor to Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr. He resigned this morning.
The presence of Dash on Kenneth Starr's team was played up in no small way by the Office of Independent Counsel and their surrogates and pundits in the press as a symbol of a "fair and bipartisan" investigation. Dash's achievements during the Watergate scandal were also spun effectively by Starr and his toadies as a totem of "investigating serious scandal and high crimes." A number of news outlets reported that a colleague at Dash's legal practice said that Dash had no ethical objections to Starr's appearance before the committee to defend his investigative methodology, but did object to Starr "[acting] as an advocate for the impeachment inquiry" and unlawfully intruding on the impeachment process. Remember -- the Independent Counsel is an employee of the executive branch of the federal government. Insinuating himself on the impeachment process constitutes both an ethical breach and arguably an unconstitutional blurring of separation of powers. This is something goofball impeachment freak Rep. Bob Barr (R-Planet Remulak) -- who today was pushing another of his "X-Files" theories that Starr was "set up" by Dash -- may want to think about before he goes shooting his mouth off.
This morning, in one of those "driveway" news conferences that has The Doc reaching for the ol' airsickness bag practically every day, Starr took some time to talk about Dash. Here are his comments -- with The Doc's [bracketed] 'asnides' on what was going through Starr's mind. "I love Sam...." "I respect him...." "I admire him...." "He's a total man of principle. I have really profited from his judgment...." "I have a gentle disagreement with Sam." "I think it was a matter of principle. It was so important to him." In all fairness, what else could Starr say? Talk about being stuck in a "worst-case" scenario -- Starr had been expecting, we are sure, for America to have finally "gotten it" and turned on Clinton. Instead, his shabby investigation got chewed up and spit out by David Kendall, and a key member of his team has called it quits. Starr had no choice but to be gracious. Starr was reported by "sources close to the investigation" to have been genuinely shocked to learn of Dash's resignation while the "Independent" Counsel was at home early this morning. In this case, we think Starr's allies may for once be speaking the truth about what they thought they saw in Starr's reaction -- if Starr had anticipated Dash's resignation, he may well have changed the nature of his testimony and defended his investigation. Instead, Starr went for broke, siding with the pirhanas circling to feast on the carcass of Bill Clinton in an impeachment feeding frenzy -- and lost big time twice, first as Clinton attorney David Kendall ripped a couple of new orifices in Starr, and second as Dash said "buh-bye" to Ken. Come to think of it, all good things come in threes. In comments largely ignored by the press, Rep. Maxine Waters hinted that she may see grounds for charging Starr with perjury! Is the possibility of such an investigation in the cards? Stay tuned...
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Dash (again for those of you too young to remember) was chief counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee some 25 years ago. He has been an attorney for almost half a century and is now a professor at Georgetown University.
Dash resigned only after Starr went before the committee to advocate his case -- and reportedly warned him that he would do so if Starr stepped over the line.