End of the year cover,
showing both men as Men of the Year
August 17, 1998: Special Counsel Kenneth Starr has been gunning for President Bill Clinton for 4 years, and he thinks he's finally got him, forcing him to go under oath and testify about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Republicans think they can now impeach him and remove him from office, due to perjury and obstruction of justice.
That night, Clinton gave a nationally-televised speech. At first, I thought he might actually resign. The word I used to describe his facial expression at that moment was "grim."
Instead, he explained what happened, and was regretful over the relationship; but as to the charges against him, he was defiant: He denied committing any crimes, and said of himself and his family, "It's nobody's business but ours."
And people got it: His approval rating actually went up. Once again, the man who called himself "The Comeback Kid" during his 1992 campaign proved he was at his best with his back to the wall.
Starr soon presented his report to Congress. The House of Representatives drew up 4 Articles of Impeachment against Clinton, but could only approve 2 of them. Still, they were approved, and Clinton was only the 2nd President, after Andrew Johnson in 1868, to be impeached. (Richard Nixon would have been impeached in 1974, had he not resigned first.) Time magazine named Clinton and Starr as joint Men of the Year.
In the ensuing Senate trial, Clinton was acquitted on both charges. In January 2001, in the final days of his Presidency, Clinton made a deal with Starr, temporarily forfeiting his law license to avoid prosecution -- not because he thought he might be convicted, because he almost certainly wouldn't have been, but because he simply wanted to put an end to it.
In 2007, Starr joined the legal defense team for accused pedophile-ring runner Jeffrey Epstein, proving himself a hypocrite on the issue of sexual misdeeds. In 2010, Starr was appointed President of Baylor University, a Baptist school in Waco, Texas. He resigned in 2016, because he had done exactly what he tried to accuse Clinton of doing: He covered up a sex scandal -- not as a result of his own misdeeds.
In 2020, he was part of Donald Trump's defense team during his 1st impeachment trial, proving that he was a man who put ideology over country.
UPDATE: Ken Starr died on September 13, 2022, 27 days after this post.
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August 17, 1998 was a Monday. These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. David Cone, pitching in his hometown against his former team, was the winning pitcher. Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez and Tim Raines hit home runs.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 4-0 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Paul Byrd pitched a 4-hit shutout.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-2 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken Jr. went 3-for-4.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 4-3 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.
* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Montreal Expos, 6-1 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix.
* The Anaheim Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-2 at Edison International Field of Anaheim (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-2 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum). Rickey Henderson went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and 2 stolen bases.
* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs.
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