Independent Counsel

THE FIRST reaction to Kenneth W. Starr's testimony, recommending the office of independent counsel cease to exist, is that if even he is not for it, the institution cannot survive.Mr. Starr, however, strains credibility when he suggests that every criticism heaped on him was caused by the failings of the 1978 independent counsel law and a voracious press. He takes no responsibility for the relentless quest for anything negative about President Clinton, for invading the private lives of people far removed from anything he was authorized to investigate, for pressure tactics that have defendants in peripheral cases claiming that he was trying to extort perjury harmful to the real targets.

Months after state and federal officials expressed grave concerns about the financial condition of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland, Gov. William Donald Schaefer wants to hire an independent counsel to advise him on the insurer's health.Mr. Schaefer has said little publicly about the Blues' financial troubles, which have received critical attention from state regulators, congressional investigators and the media.But yesterday, Mr. Schaefer told listeners of his weekly radio talk show that, in the past, he was continually assured by state Insurance Commissioner John A. Donaho that Maryland's largest health insurer was solvent.

THE COURT hearing to determine whether Janet Reno may investigate Kenneth Starr is strange. The law establishing the independent counsel specifies that the attorney general may remove him for cause.She must be able to determine whether cause exists.A second need calls for someone, Congress if not the attorney general, to investigate the record of all independent counsels. The law creating that office is expiring, and Congress must decide whether to renew, discard or improve it. To do so, it must learn what went wrong -- and right.

ATTORNEY GENERAL Janet Reno, the most independent member of the first Clinton cabinet, should be retained to fulfill that role in the second Clinton cabinet because of widescale corruption in the 1996 election campaign. She has already proved her bona fides by appointing four independent counsels to investigate various allegations against the administration. Now she needs to do so again as evidence of illegal or improper contributions to the Democratic National Committee multiply on a daily basis.

WASHINGTON -- The leak of a scathing confidential report on the Justice Department's campaign finance investigation touched off an angry exchange yesterday between George W. Bush and Al Gore over fund-raising improprieties and both candidates' fitness for office. The 94-page report, leaked in an edited version to the Los Angeles Times, accused senior Justice Department officials of engaging in legal "contortions" to avoid naming an independent counsel to look into fund-raising excesses in the 1996 election.

DID VICE PRESIDENT Al Gore break the law by soliciting campaign donations through telephone calls from his White House office?The answer will depend on which interpretation of a 114-year-old law prevails in a tug of war in Washington charged with partisan politics.In this case, Republicans want the strictest possible interpretation to apply, while supporters of the president and vice president argue that a 114-year-old law specifically designed to protect government employees from political solicitations has never been enforced in this way before.

KENNETH W. STARR has poisoned the well for future independent counsels. His excessive zeal has even sparked bipartisan support for letting the independent counsel law expire this summer.That would be unwise. Though the law is badly flawed, a rewritten statute could rebuild public confidence in government's ability to investigate itself responsibly.Mr. Starr wasn't the first independent counsel to overreach. Many question another special prosecutor's unsuccessful indictment of former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy for accepting Super Bowl tickets.

KENNETH Starr should personally write or supervise the final report that his Office of Independent Counsel is required to produce before it shuts down.For five years, one of its obvious targets has been Hillary Rodham Clinton, against whom it has brought no charges. Whatever it does or says about her -- or refrains from doing or saying -- will figure in the 2000 Senate race in New York. She is almost certain to be the Democratic nominee.Mr. Starr cannot honorably go this far and then hand it over to a caretaker or successor, whatever his personal or professional desires.

WASHINGTON -- With U.S. troops unable to find expected weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a group of officials met aboard Air Force Two in mid-2003 to discuss how to respond to the growing prominence of one particular critic of President Bush's Iraq policy. Vice President Dick Cheney was on the flight. So was his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. It was a scene that suggested intrigue. And if it had occurred as part of a past Washington scandal, the investigator who revealed it probably would have included a wealth of details, naming everyone present and laying out what they said.

WASHINGTON -- A report by the independent counsel for the House ethics committee is highly critical of Speaker Newt Gingrich for his admitted ethical lapses, recommends a heavy fine and suggests that the matter be turned over to the Justice Department for further investigation, congressional aides said last night.The committee had tentatively scheduled a public hearing today on the case but appeared to back away as Republican committee members read the report and saw its potential to be politically damaging.