Thursday, February 26 --- New York (APJP) -- You'll have to excuse me if my thoughts are a little scattered this morning -- yesterday was Grammy day in New York, and yours truly spent much of the afternoon and evening mostly avoiding national politics and schmoozing with friends in the record industry.
But I couldn't help asking a few people about their thought on Starr-gate. An unscientific sample of about a dozen record industry honchos is that Starr is: "going way too far," "a nosy, dirty old man who probably gets off on the President's sex life," "a Gingrich butt-boy." Most of the rest is unrepeatable, except for a friend at Elektra Records who said "he's a pit bull, and he'd make a helluva good record label lawyer."
Not to Ken: you can send your resume to Time-Warner, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY. It might be a good idea to do this pretty soon.
Because you're losing support. Big time. From people you'd expect support from.
The first critic from the conservative camp may have been Stephen Saltzburg, a deputy assistant attorney general under both Reagan and Bush. He said "[Starr's] logic is strained and feeds the feeling that the independent counsel may be biased against the President and has strayed far from the path that justfied his appointment."
American Bar Association President Jerome J. Shestack weighed in a week or so ago with this: "Does prosecutorial zeal justify sting operations and unauthorized wiretapping in order to leverage the hiding of noncriminal, sexual indiscretion into a criminal obstruction of justice?… Are prosecutors entitled to ignore ethical prescriptions on the grounds that their pursuit of truth or common practice justifies departure from professional standards?"
Starr also received criticism — albeit muted — from GOP members of Congress over the weekend on some of the political chat shows, and some Republican members of Congress are reportedly angry at Starr for his tactics and choice of subpoena targets in the Lewinsky flap.
We have even heard a buzz from the Beltway that at least one major conservative pundit will go public early next week with the opinion that Ken Starr should just plain quit and cut his losses.
But the big shocker of the day (not that anything from Starr-gate comes as a shock anymore) came from congressman Bill Paxon (R-NY), who announced yesterday that he would not run for another term in the House of Representatives.
This came as a stunner following news that Paxon was planning to challenge Dick Armey as House majority leader.
Paxon, who had been a longtime supporter of speaker Newt Gingrich and an architect of congressional Republican policy and strategy, led a much-ballyhooed "coup" attempt against Gingrich last year. It resulted in his being tossed from the House leadership.
Frankly, getting thrown out of a leadership position by Newt is a badge of honor Paxon can wear with pride for the rest of his life.
And there's no question Paxon did the right thing -- given that Gingrich is a poster boy for ethics reform, is thought by many to be the target of investigations into campaign money malfeasance, and continues to do withering damage to the GOP by remaining as Speaker --- and we think it's a shame not just for Paxon but the entire GOP that he's dropping out of Congress.
Paxon gave family reasons as his official reason: he wants to spend more time with his wife Susan Molinari (another GOP dropout from the House) and "expand our family in the future.'' A few pundits have opined that his wife's tell-all book may have also been a factor: portions leaked to the press a few days back portray Newt as a self-doubting whiner. we can't wait to read it.
It's a shame… we didn't always agree with Paxon, but he was a man of integrity with the guts to take on Gingrich, and we'll miss him.
(That is, if he's really leaving! See sidebar below…)
The other noteworthy news story: the fake "conservative" big spenders in the Senate voted their first overrides of President Clinton's line-item vetoes by a 78-20, restoring funding for 38 pork-barrel military projects nixed by Clinton.
So next time your senator claims to be a "deficit hawk," think twice and see how they voted on these overrides.
Dave "Doctor" Gonzo
THIS JUST IN: One of our sources in Washington tells us not to rule out the possibility that Paxon may not definitely be leaving, but is actually consolidating his support for a possible showdown with Dick Armey, as reported earlier this week in Roll Call and supposedly mooted by his decision. We will watch this story.
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