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Doc's DIS-patch
TUESDAY, February 24 --- New York (APJP) -- Ken Starr is easy enough to dis -- his ties to right-wing groups, big tobacco and professional Clinton-haters are well-known. He looks like a middle-aged version of the really brainy kid in high school that everyone beat up on, only to meet him at the 20th school reunion to learn he had a seven-figure income and a trophy wife. Wouldn't surprise us if that's exactly the case! He still looks like a dweeb.But I digress… Malibu Ken, the dweeb turned bully, is at it again, and his latest move stinks to high heaven of cheap-shot payback.
The major papers reported this morning that the office of the Independent Counsel has subpoenaed Sid Blumenthal, aide to President Clinton, over "documents he may have regarding Starr's staff."
Blumenthal was quoted in the New York Times as saying "His subpoena demands that I name journalists that have talked to me about Ken Starr, and it demands any records of conversations I have had with journalists about Ken Starr. I am incensed that I have been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury by Ken Starr and that my subpoena has been leaked. The only reason I am speaking about this is because my subpoena was leaked to news organizations."
Jo Marsh, Blumenthal's attorney, was quoted in the Washington Post as saying: "We view this as an attempt to stifle criticism of the independent counsel's office. Journalists certainly should be outraged and so should members of the general public… [this recalls] the old star chamber or the Gestapo. Just outrageous."
Starr claims that President Clinton's aides are attempting to hinder his probe of Lewinsky flap and spinning negative information.
We don't think this is the reason Starr subpoenaed Sid.
In light of other related information that has emerged over the last couple days, Starr's claims simply don't ring true -- in fact, it looks like another "serendipitous" coincidence because of other information that emerged the day before.
On Sunday, well-known Clinton-hater Joseph diGenova claimed on Meet the Press that he and his wife Victoria Toensing, among others, were being checked out by by "private investigators."
The funny thing is, when you start looking into the names of these "others," an interesting pattern emerges: these people have been the suspected source of leaks from "Malibu" Ken Starr's office to the press regarding details of grand jury testimony and allegations made against the President.
Well, gee, Joe, we're shocked that someone is looking into these leaks!
The White House issued a categorical denial on Sunday that they had hired PIs to look into anyone. Keep in mind, though, that the law firm representing President Clinton, Williams & Connolly, does have the right to retain private investigators if they deem it necessary to gather information for their case -- and especially if they uncover evidence that the Independent Counsel's office has sprung some leaks.
Later on Sunday, rumors hit the Internet that these private investigators were being financed by someone on the West Coast. Hey, Matt Drudge, we'd credit you for this rumor but we won't -- just so we can see you have a high-dudgeon fit about not being credited next time you're on TV!
But what's the big deal anyway?
If, indeed, a friend of Bill wants to help his lawyers and aides get to the bottom of felonious leakage from the Independent Counsel's office, we say more power to them! The whiners are pretty closely tied to the cadre of lawyers, foundations and activists who have bankrupted Clinton, on what are clearly trumped-up charges of wrongdoing.
You have to admit, it's a far more ethical situation than, say, a paranoid and allegedly alcoholic billionaire spending nearly two million dollars on a secret project run out of a right-wingnut magazine, hiring investigators to dig dirt on then-Governor Clinton's sex life and "launder" the fees through nonprofit foundations as "legal fees."
What makes the Blumenthal subpoena particularly interesting is that Blumenthal filed a suit against Internet to gossip columnist Matt Drudge. In a Drudge Report column last year, Matt claimed that one of his "sources" had told them that Blumenthal beat his wife. This incident completely torpedoed Drudge's credibility in our eyes --- showing him to be any incompetent journalist unable or unwilling to check facts, and a mere stooge of the extreme right.
We wonder --- is this subpoena payback for suing Conservative Bozoland's most notorious gossip and leaker? Is Starr out to learn what Blumenthal himself has learned about Drudge's sources and other leakers? It would not surprise us in the least.
Starr also attempted to subpoena Mickey Kantor, an attorney representing Clinton, but dropped the effort after Kantor argued he could not be forced to testify because of attorney-client privilege.
Starr's strategy seems pretty clear: quash any and all efforts by Clinton's aides and lawyers to track down the source of leaks to the press from within Starr's own the office, intimidate the bastards, and make them pay for attacking his private fourth branch of government.
It looks to us as if ol' Malibu's aggressively trying any tactic he can to discover who knows what about the leaks emerging from his office.
It's almost reminiscent of Richard Nixon and his "plumbers." Stonewall it, Ken.
My, my… history has a way of repeating itself.
'Nuff said.
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