For years the 90% Democrat press and newsreaders heaped abuse on him. Saturday Night Live and Larry Flynt and James Carville blasted him.
Spectators watching him abandoning Miquel Rodriguez to the death of a thousand cuts, and being outmaneuvered by Monica Lewinsky (Strange and Truth respectively) cringe at the thought of a rematch of those cases.
But this will be before the no-nonsense author of Grand Inquests, William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States--and Larry Flynt and James Carville and Saturday Night Live won't be in the chamber.
Having had a recent glimpse of the tenor of those proceedings where Ted Olson and David Boies pled to Olympus, it brought new meaning to the old tag line, "Heah come de judge."
While it's clear that Vince Foster didn't get up from the table and go get his Honda keys (relying on Craig Livingstone for that), it's also clear that Starr is just corny enough to really have reverence for "the majesty of the law".
At first blush, it seems the worst of bad jokes.
But 80% approval and the clarifying moment of 9/11 has focused the mind. Bernard Goldberg's Bias and Election 2000 has neutered the newsreaders. In the rarified air of the Supreme Court bar it is likely that the bar to mention of candidates' names will be whacked by a terrible swift sword.
So let it be written; so let it be done.