The Week

■ President Clinton made heroic efforts to bring together the parties to an ancient dispute, but Paula Jones’s lawyers wouldn’t budge.

■ Four years and forty million dollars may yet get Ken Starr impeached. If Democrats have their way, Starr, not the President, will be the center of scrutiny when impeachment hearings open next month. Dennis Shea reviews the charges against Starr in this issue (p. 22). The questions being raised include whether conservative lawyers improperly tipped off Starr about Monica Lewinsky a week earlier than first thought, and whether Starr helped the Paula Jones team before his appointment as independent counsel. As “wrongdoing” goes, this is tame stuff, especially when the accusers are people who laugh off per-jury. Since when is it improper for a prosecutor’s office to receive a tip (even if it is from lawyers connected to the conservative Federalist Society, which is rapidly becoming the Left’s Bilderbergers)? In any case, Starr didn’t act on the early tip. As for the “legal advice” he gave Paula Jones’s lawyers, it appears to have amounted to an elaboration of his publicly announced position that Presidents are not immune from civil suits; and no money changed hands. Starr, the consummate lawyer, will probably acquit himself ably in any hearings. But his very presence will provide what the Democrats crave most: distraction.

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■ President Clinton made heroic efforts to bring together the parties to an ancient dispute, but Paula Jones’s lawyers wouldn’t budge.

■ Four years and forty million dollars may yet get Ken Starr impeached. If Democrats have their way, Starr, not the President, will be the center of scrutiny when impeachment hearings open next month. Dennis Shea reviews the charges against Starr in this issue (p. 22). The questions being raised include whether conservative lawyers improperly tipped off Starr about Monica Lewinsky a week earlier than first thought, and whether Starr helped the Paula Jones team before his appointment as independent counsel. As “wrongdoing” goes, this is tame stuff, especially when the accusers are people who laugh off per-jury. Since when is it improper for a prosecutor’s office to receive a tip (even if it is from lawyers connected to the conservative Federalist Society, which is rapidly becoming the Left’s Bilderbergers)? In any case, Starr didn’t act on the early tip. As for the “legal advice” he gave Paula Jones’s lawyers, it appears to have amounted to an elaboration of his publicly announced position that Presidents are not immune from civil suits; and no money changed hands. Starr, the consummate lawyer, will probably acquit himself ably in any hearings. But his very presence will provide what the Democrats crave most: distraction.