Ken Starr, the ardent Republican prosecutor who went after Bill Clinton for messing around with Monica Lewinsky, is now bedeviled by allegations that he also had an affair with a former co-worker, an issue that may complicate GOP efforts to use Starr as an attack dog to go after President Biden.
The subject of Starr’s affections, a woman named Judi Hershmann claimed that: “I had been on the bike trip through Tuscany in 2009. Early one evening while our spouses were at dinner elsewhere, [Kenneth] Starr had stepped out from the shadows of the grounds of the inn where we were staying and called me over. After expressing his feelings for me, he pulled me into an embrace. This was the beginning of a fond, consensual affair…. Starr had taken my hand and placed it on his crotch….Our affair ran its course after a year or so of occasional encounters and a steady exchange of affectionate texts and emails.”
Washington Monthly reports that: “[A]assuming Hershman’s allegation is true (Starr hasn’t yet come forth to deny it), this revelation of Starr’s apparent hypocrisy arrives at an inconvenient moment. Many Republicans are trying right now to escalate the culture war, and you can’t easily wage culture war with compromised warriors.”
“In 1993 Bill Clinton became president, ending 12 years of Republican White House rule. It was clear to anyone paying attention that Clinton had been less than scrupulously faithful to his wife, to whom he was otherwise tightly bonded. Apoplectic conservatives wasted no time pounding him as antithetical to “family values.” That didn’t work. Most voters put their pocketbook first and, with the economy growing in 1996, they re-elected Clinton handily.”
“Starr [was the infamous lead on the] “Whitewater” investigation. Ethical questions about an Arkansas real estate investment during Clinton’s time as governor had in 1994 prompted the appointment of a special counsel by Clinton’s attorney general. The initial lead investigator, Robert Fiske, was on the verge of indicting several Clinton associates, but his initial report in June 1994 found no wrongdoing by Clinton. Weeks later, a pair of Republican-appointed judges fired Fiske and brought in Starr, despite Starr’s lack of prosecutorial experience.”
“Starr expanded the scope of the investigation and dragged it out for years. When he heard of Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky in January 1998, he shifted the inquiry’s focus and used his findings to accuse Clinton of perjury. The resultant Starr Report included the most embarrassingly clinical details of a president’s sex life that the world had ever seen, so much so that newspapers and cable news shows struggled to find ways to report its contents. Gleeful Republicans, sensing political opportunity, declared Clinton morally unfit for the presidency and moved to impeach him.”
“It didn’t work. Not only was the public more interested in the booming economy than in Clinton’s sexual practices, but high-profile Clinton critics kept getting caught cheating on their spouses. Three House Republicans—including leading abortion opponent Congressman Henry Hyde—admitted infidelity shortly before the 1998 midterm elections.”
The problem for Republicans today is a bit different: nobody suspects that Joe Biden has ever cheated on his wife. Republicans have desperately tried to make political hay out of rising gas and lumber prices, but as soon as they cranked their propaganda mill up prices started falling. Half of the Florida GOP is likely to end up getting caught up in Florida House member Matt Gaetz teen escort pimping scandal and Kevin McCarthy has zero control over the investigation of the January 6th insurrection, a proceeding that will likely include him being called as a witness.
The GOP is caught in a bind where there are no Republicans left who have substantial name recognition and historical appeal to typical pro-business conservatives who are willing to carry the Trump banner. Bob Dole’s far too old, Barr is out, Cheney’s not going to side with Trump over his own daughter, and now Ken Starr appears to be out as well. The Republican Party is starting to fall apart.