You don’t seem either to remember or to grasp different roles in the prosecution of Clinton. Starr was the independent prosecutor. It was his office that pursued the lying under oath (the actual crime) that led to the impeachment, to Clinton’s having to surrender his law license for 5 years, and having to make significant monetary restitution.
It is the U.S. House of Representatives that conducts the impeachment. Clinton was impeached. A team from the House of Representatives (called the “Managers’) was then responsible for the prosecution in the U.S. Senate (before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court).
It was the Senate, not Starr who had nothing to do with the Senate prosecution, that failed to find Clinton guilty. A bunch of cowardly Senators. Had they found him guilty, he’d not have finished out his 2nd term and, yes, we’d have been stuck with “President Gore.” Not necessarily for two terms. When Ford succeeded Nixon who had to resign in disgrace rather than face impeachment, he was not elected to a full term.
I don’t think Bush would have defeated an “Incumbent” Gore.