This section is one of our largest at RatherBiased.com. In it are Dan Rather's tirades against a man he says has "dogged President Clinton for so long." Rather wonders, among other things, if the investigation has been going on too long and whether or not Starr is "politically motivated and out to get" Bill Clinton. Rather is also certain that Starr "despises" the president and that his investigation into Clinton's wrongdoings was just about his personal life. He is sure he's a partisan Republican, labeling him a "Republican" countless times and calling him an activist.

Rather has not always had such an antagonistic view of presidential investigators, however. To Rather, Starr's predecessors--who investigated Republican presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush--are worthy of admiration for their tenacity and fearlessness.

See also Clinton's Impeachment

"New disclosures are fueling questions about whether or not Starr is an ambitious Republican partisan backed by ideologically motivated, anti-Clinton activists and judges from the Reagan, Bush, and Nixon years. Correspondent Eric Engberg has tonight's CBS Evening News Reality Check."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, August 12, 1994.

Hillary Clinton "believes there is and has been for a long time a wide and deep political conspiracy to get the President and that Ken Starr is the point man for that."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 27, 1998.

"Well, special prosecutor Ken Starr showed again today how far he'll go to find out more,"
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 18, 1998.

"New indications in a CBS News poll out tonight of how the public perceives Republican special prosecutor Ken Starr's investigation. Our poll suggests only 27 percent believe Starr is conducting an impartial probe. And 55 percent think it's time for Starr to drop his investigation."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 3 1998.

"Justice Department officials are discussing whether to open an investigation into Republican special prosecutor Ken Starr's conduct and tactics. These talks are said to be preliminary, but in the words of one high government source that we believe to be highly credible, the word is, quote, 'serious.'"
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, June 17, 1998.

"But his defeat of them is not yet complete. So he aims now for the kill-shot. Some Republicans and many Democrats don't want him to take it. But the choice isn't theirs. Congress doesn't control Starr. No one does. That's the meaning of 'independent counsel.' The law says so."
   "They [the Clintons] have been hit. Crippling shot. And their pursuer [Ken Starr] still has them in his cross hairs. They are the hunted, and the hunter is closing in, looking for the one, final shot that will put them away. Forever."
--Dan Rather in his syndicated column, September 16, 1998.

"62 percent in the CBS survey perceived special prosecutor Ken Starr as not impartial, but rather politically motivated and out to get the Clintons. So is there any basis for this perception? You may want to consider the following. You heard the tapes Linda Tripp secretly made of her supposed friend Monica Lewinsky. Tapes that triggered the heart of the Starr investigation as it now stands. Tonight, consider the Linda Tripp tapes of Lucianne Goldberg, a former member of the Richard Nixon dirty tricks squad and an up front Clinton-basher these days. CBS News correspondent Eric Engberg checked hard and deep for this Reality Check complete with reality soundbites."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, November 18, 1998.

"Ken Starr and his people have been working for three to four years, spent more than $30 million, they've used dozens if not a hundred or so FBI agents. They may have turned this up, whether you had the Paula Jones case or not. But again maybe not, but again that's like if a frog had side pockets he'd probably wear a handgun. It didn't happen that way."
--Dan Rather on the Late Show with David Letterman, February 5, 1998.

"The long-running, wide-ranging and multi-million dollar Ken Starr investigation of the Clintons is far from over, possibly running now beyond 1998. That's on top of the nearly four years and $30 to $40 million it's already taken."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, April 22, 1998.

"Long time Republican activist Ken Starr..."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 22, 1998.

"Future historians may wonder how and why so many Americans chose to be so unconcerned. In the eyes of history, Bill Clinton is not the only one on trial. So are his accusers. [pause] So are his judges. And so are all of us."
--Dan Rather speaking during CBS's live coverage of the Senate Impeachment trial, January 14, 1999.

"Ken Starr has hit President Clinton with his best shot. He has badly wounded him and has him staggering. But the President is still standing. Limping, wobbling, and near collapse, but still standing.
   "Now Starr is pressing, trying to put the political kill-shot on him. Starr has many more shots to fire. They include unloading on First Lady Hillary Clinton."
--Dan Rather in his syndicated column, September 16, 1998.

"Good evening. More people close to President Clinton became witnesses today in special prosecutor Ken Starr's push for testimony about the President's personal life."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News August 5, 1998.

"Today marks the end of four years of the Ken Starr investigation, and still counting. Cost to taxpayers so far: 40 million dollars, and counting."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News August 5, 1998.
Note: Lawrence Walsh's Iran-Contra investigation lasted seven years and cost twice as much (after inflation). Rather admired Walsh.

"On another front, there could be trouble for the Ken Starr Whitewater investigation. Reports continue to surface that this key witness for the prosecution, David Hale, may have been secretly bankrolled by political activists widely regarded as political opponents, people that Clinton supporters call Republican haters from the far Right."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, April 2, 1998
Note: The Washington Post a year later reported about a special judicial investigation into whether Hale was bribed. It was concluded that many of the allegations of such payments were "unsubstantiated" and "in some cases, untrue," and that no criminal prosecution should be brought. Rather reported the accusation against Starr but not the result of the investigation.

"Stormy politics in Washington. A federal court investigation into special prosecutor Ken Starr's secret leaking of details to selected reporters about his case against the Clintons, is far from over. But the impact on Starr's case is already being felt..."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, June 16, 1998.

"In a CBS News poll out tonight just 29 percent believe Starr is conducting an impartial investigation of President Clinton. And 57 percent want Starr to drop his investigation of the President's personal life."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 8, 1998.

"Ken Starr drops another load on President Clinton...Just as President Clinton was enjoying a day talking up the economy, officially announcing the first U.S. budget surplus in three decades, Ken Starr hit him again. The Republican independent counsel and special prosecutor decided late in the day to announce his decision to press his subpoena for samples of Monica Lewinsky's handwriting, fingerprints and her voice."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 26, 1998.

"Good evening. There are these important developments tonight in Ken Starr's prosecutorial attack against President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, June 2, 1998.

"Monica Lewinsky showed up, as ordered, to give the FBI handwriting and fingerprint samples for special prosecutor Ken Starr's deepening investigation into the President's personal life. She arrived at the federal office building here with her father, flanked by security, and the press of course all around. Lewinsky's father castigated Starr and his tactics."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 28, 1998.

"Special prosecutor Kenneth Starr has increased the pressure even further on President Clinton today in what some call the nastiest and most personal clash yet. The Clintons have accused Starr of illegal, false and self-serving leaks of grand jury testimony in a campaign to get the Clintons at all costs--as they see it."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 24, 1998.

"...as CBS News White House correspondent Scott Pelley reports, Starr is boring in bigger, harder."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 24, 1998.

"New indications in a CBS News poll out tonight of how the public perceives Republican special prosecutor Ken Starr's investigation. Our poll suggests only 27 percent believe Starr is conducting an impartial probe. And 55 percent think it's time for Starr to drop his investigation."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 2, 1998.
Note: See our section on push polling.

"Turning from the West under water, here's the latest now on the White House under fire. Special prosecutor Ken Starr went on defense today against talk that he is politically motivated."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 5, 1998.

"Possible new trouble for the President tonight in the Whitewater real estate deal investigation. Republican special prosecutor Kenneth Starr has reportedly subpoenaed records of the President, the First Lady and top White House aides."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, September 25, 1997.

"Good evening. A bombshell inside the Ken Starr camp today. The prosecutor's own chief ethics adviser quit in protest. The widely respected, independent Sam Dash said Starr quote, 'unlawfully went from fact presenter to impeachment advocate' in his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, November 20, 1998.
Note: Despite how Rather portrays him, the Scripps-Howard news service noted that Dash's "reputation for partisanship was relatively well-demonstrated" during his time as Majority Counsel during the Watergate hearings: he edited out unfavorable mentions of Democratic presidents in Nixon White House memos, and allowed his probers to leak material damaging to Nixon, including the existence of a White House taping system. NBC's Lisa Myers reported shortly after Dash's resignation that he had been under heavy pressure from the White House and congressional Democrats to quit. Neither Rather nor CBS reported these facts.

"Questions [that he leaked items to the press] about the Starr investigation came fast and furious, but not the answers."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, April 30, 1998.

"The Clinton's former Whitewater partner [Susan McDougal] is taken in chains to the Ken Starr grand jury." "Again today she said Starr is ideologically motivated and out to get the Clintons."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, April 23, 1998.
Note: Susan McDougal was a prisoner and had hand- and anklecuffs on.

"But as for the President's personal life, 60 percent said they want Starr to end the Monica Lewinsky investigation."
--Dan Rather citing a CBS News poll on the CBS Evening News, April 23, 1998.

"Several poll questions also indicate the American public wants an end to the investigation of the President's private life, including the Ken Starr investigation of the Monica Lewinsky case. But as CBS's chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer reports, Kenneth Starr made it clear today by word and deed that he couldn't disagree more."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, April 2, 1998.

"Federal auditors report special prosecutor Ken Starr's investigation of the Clintons has now cost at least $29 million and still counting."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 31, 1998.

"Clearly and dramatically the President's side confirmed a key part of their strategy is to counterattack the man they see as a politically biased special prosecutor, Republican Kenneth Starr."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 6, 1998.

"Good evening. The Republican special prosecutor in the Whitewater case announced a sudden change in plans this afternoon..."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 21, 1997.

"Special prosecutor Kenneth Starr has increased the pressure even further on President Clinton today in what some call the nastiest and most personal clash yet. The Clintons have accused Starr of illegal, false and self-serving leaks of grand jury testimony in a campaign to get the Clintons at all costs, as they see it. Tonight, as CBS News White House correspondent Scott Pelley reports, Starr is boring in bigger, harder."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 24, 1998.

"By more than two to one, the public says special prosecutor Ken Starr is politically motivated to damage the Clintons."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 9, 1998.

"President Clinton moved today to counter special prosecutor Ken Starr's latest push to investigate his personal life."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, August 3, 1998.

"In Washington there are new indications tonight at just how wide, deep, and aggressively special prosecutor Ken Starr is pushing to make the Secret Service tell what it knows about the President's personal life."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, July 13, 1998.

"New and serious accusations about special prosecutor Kenneth Starr's conduct during his investigation of President Clinton are the subject of a special federal court hearing in Washington tonight. Subject: Starr now admits giving reporters secret briefings about details of the case."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, June 15, 1998.
Note: Iran-contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh regularly held briefings where he disclosed secret grand jury material.

Judge Susan Webber-Wright had dismissed Paula Jones's sexual harassment suit against the President:
"Scott, is there any doubt there that this increases the pressure on Ken Starr to put up or shut up?"
--Dan Rather to Scott Pelley on the CBS Evening News, April 1, 1998.

"Starr's subpoenas to people close to Clinton are one reason the Clintons are convinced that the special prosecutor and his staff are out to get them. So who's on this Starr team anyway and where did they come from? We asked CBS's Phil Jones to find out."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 25, 1998.

"By more than two to one, the public says special prosecutor Ken Starr is politically motivated to damage the Clintons."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 9, 1998.

"In Washington late today lawyers for President Clinton asked a federal court to find special prosecutor Kenneth Starr in contempt of court. Mr. Clinton's lawyers cite what they say are illegal, false and self-serving leaks from Starr's grand jury investigation, especially aspects involving Monica Lewinsky. In effect the President's lawyers would like to have a special prosecutor investigate the special prosecutor."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 9, 1998.

CALLER: "I want a comparison of the Iran-Contras and this situation [Clinton's scandal]."
RATHER: "There are Democrats who will say--mark well Dan Rather's not saying this--there are Democrats who say that one of the differences is that there wasn't a Ken Starr. There wasn't, in their mind, an ideologically -quote, out to get somebody, financed by a lot of money. That would be some Democrats' claim about it."
--Dan Rather on Larry King Live, January 14, 1999.
Note: Instead of telling the caller what he thought, Rather recited what the Democrats thought.

"The Republican Whitewater offensive is taking an unprecedented turn: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has been subpoenaed and now must testify before a Whitewater federal grand jury. That grand jury is led by a Republican prosecutor, Kenneth Starr."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 22, 1996.

"In Washington a federal judge today bluntly described special prosecutor Ken Starr's tactics as, and I quote, 'really scary.'"
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, June 26, 1999.
See Rather's selective use of labeling.

"Ken Starr relentlessly pursues Bill Clinton and his presidency,"
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, August 19, 1998.

"At least three active-duty Secret Service employees were forced today to appear before special prosecutor Ken Starr's grand jury to give testimony. This happened after Chief Justice William Rehnquist cleared the way for Starr's unprecedented push to make the Secret Service tell him at least some of what it knows about the President's personal life."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, July 17, 1998.

"Republican special prosecutor Kenneth Starr said his investigation of the Clinton camp is far from over..."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, April 16, 1998.

"Some analysts say forcing Monica Lewinsky's mother to testify about intimate mother-daughter talk fuels the view that Kenneth Starr is politically motivated to damage the Clintons at all costs, and/or he's tone deaf to public distaste with squeezing a mother and daughter this way."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 12, 1998.

"The President may be helped by a public feeling that his troubles may be due more to others than himself...As for special prosecutor Republican Ken Starr, by nearly five to three people say he is conducting a partisan rather than an impartial investigation."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 26, 1998.

"Good evening, the Republican special prosecutor in the Whitewater case is naming a trusted friend and senior adviser to President Clinton as a quote 'unindicted co-conspirator.' This is in connection with an Arkansas criminal trial. Bruce Lindsey now stands accused, but not indicted....Still unclear--what's behind this tactic of the prosecutor."
"Bill, this unindicted co-conspirator tactic. Does it mean prosecutor Starr doesn't actually have the goods on Lindsey and wants to turn him to the prosecution's side, or wants to evoke Nixon-Watergate memories. What is the reading there?"
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, June 19, 1996.

"A late-breaking and major escalation tonight of special prosecutor Ken Starr's aggressive push to make the Secret Service tell him what it knows about the President's personal life."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, July 13, 1998.

"There is growing controversy tonight, about whether the newly named independent counsel in the Whitewater case is independent or a Republican partisan allied with a get-Clinton movement."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, August 8, 1994.

"Nearly two-thirds polled say the explicit content of Starr's report is, quote, 'inappropriate.' Majorities of those polled say Congress was wrong to release the sexy details and that the special prosecutor's motive was to quote 'embarrass' the President."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, September 15, 1998.

"The Republican Whitewater special prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, won a big one today."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 28, 1996.

"The Republican special prosecutor in the Whitewater case announced a sudden change in plans this afternoon. Kenneth Starr reversed orbit. He canceled plans to quit and take another job in California."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 21, 1997.

A legal setback late today for Kenneth Starr, the Republican independent counsel in the Whitewater case. A federal judge in Little Rock threw out Starr's indictment of Arkansas's Democratic Governor."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, September 5, 1995.

Monica Lewinsky's book about her relationship with President Clinton came out:
"...her [Monica Lewinsky's] fresh accusations suggesting that special prosecutor Kenneth Starr's team and the FBI may have used unethical, and possibly unlawful, tactics in prying out of her details of her sexual relationship with President Clinton."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 4, 1999.

"Ken Starr's efforts to send a longtime friend of President Clinton back to prison failed today. A federal judge dismissed new tax evasion charges against Webster Hubbell. And the judge sharply criticized the tactics Starr used against Hubbell in the special prosecutor's efforts to get incriminating information about the President and Mrs. Clinton."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, July 1, 1998.

"[A]ppearing before any grand jury, especially this one [Ken Starr's], can be a gut-wrenching experience."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 2, 1998.

"The Republican independent counsel is casting far and wide and digging deep, investigating the alleged affair between President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 19, 1998.

"The President's old friend Web Hubbell, under the microscope again of Republican special prosecutor Kenneth Starr."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 6, 1997.

Republican Lauch Faircloth lost his Senate seat in the '98 elections:
"How sweet it must be for President Clinton. Lauch Faircloth, the man who actually was responsible along with Jesse Helms for making Ken Starr the special prosecutor who has dogged President Clinton for so long. Lauch is locked out in North Carolina."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, November 3, 1998.

"Kenneth Starr is also facing tough questions in court. Unsealed court documents revealed the argument Starr made, and an appeals court didn't buy, when it ruled Starr should be investigated for possibly illegal leaks of what are supposed to be secret grand jury and testimony. Starr contended that quote, 'revealing confidential investigative information to journalists is like trading information with confidential police informers.' The court rejected Starr's claim and cited several specific leaks that it said warranted investigation."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, August 13, 1998.
Note: Starr was later vindicated of all wrongdoing, though Rather never relayed it.

"The public may long ago have tired of the whole Whitewater business, but Starr hasn't."
--Dan Rather in his syndicated column, September 16, 1998.

"There are enormous differences between then and now. These include differences between Starr, (who despises Clinton) and Jaworski. They also include the fact that, by August 1974, a decisive majority of Americans wanted Nixon out of office."
--Dan Rather in his syndicated column, August 12, 1998.
Note: Public opinion polls during presidential scandals have always showed a soft spot for the president. Despite Rather's claim, public opinion polls showed that most people did not want Nixon removed from office or want him to resign.

"Ken Starr, the special prosecutor...has dogged President Clinton for so long."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, November 3, 1998.

"So he slogs on."
--Dan Rather, speaking of Ken Starr, in a syndicated column, April 22, 1998.

"[Ken Starr's] standing in public opinion polls is low and sinking lower." "Starr has had to surrender hopes of a prestigious law deanship at Pepperdine University, and his once-bright dreams of one day becoming a U.S. Supreme Court justice have vanished." "A disappointed, determined enemy with little to lose is an especially dangerous one, most particularly when he is a prosecutor with unlimited funds and time with which to strike."
--Dan Rather in his syndicated column, April 22, 1998. This column was included in his 1999 book, Deadlines and Datelines under the title, "A Dangerous Man."

"I make no bones about it, I'm a liberal, unreconstructed, you know, old-fashioned, proud of it liberal." "In this book, he calls Ken Starr 'a dangerous man.' I like it. From the Left, I am Bill Press. Good night."
--Bill Press speaking of Dan Rather's 1999 book Deadlines and Datelines, CNN's Crossfire, June 24, 1999. print_file('footer'); ?>