The Axman Cometh

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

What can the White House expect from the new Whitewater independent counsel? As a Baptist minister's son growing up in San Antonio, Texas, Kenneth Starr admired Richard Nixon. "I really identified with Nixon because of his rather humble roots," Starr has said. Today, as a 48-year-old lawyer and veteran of the Reagan and Bush Administrations, he speaks wishfully of Dan Quayle's political future. "If President Quayle asked me to become the solicitor general again, I'd do it," he told TIME in a recent interview. His appointment has Republicans cheering and Democrats worried. Republican Congressman Jim Leach of Iowa calls Starr's credentials "impeccable." A Clinton adviser labels Starr "a partisan."

In a way, they're both right -- Starr's credentials as a partisan are impeccable. Ronald Reagan appointed him to a judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where one of his major rulings was to strike down an affirmative-action hiring plan for fire fighters. George Bush named him U.S. Solicitor General, the government's lawyer in Supreme Court cases, a role in which he argued in favor of a flag-burning ban. In 1990 Starr was on Bush's short list for the Supreme Court. Starr has argued against President Clinton's request for temporary immunity from the Paula Jones sexual-harassment lawsuit. Starr told TIME, "The President cannot violate the law as a citizen and then say with impunity, 'Wait until the year 2001.' " He added, "The immunity doctrine is ancient and important, but it is limited. It is a doctrine of law that protects the presidency and not the individual."

Can Starr set aside his partisanship and conduct a fair investigation? Starr sees himself, above all else, as a public servant ready and willing to tackle the task at hand. "My job is to chop the wood that is before me to chop," he said in 1991. "I have a very keen sense that I am to do what I am called upon to do." Starr has been entrusted in the past with sensitive tasks such as reviewing the diaries of Bob Packwood for the Senate Ethics Committee. While Starr has never before worked as a prosecutor, colleagues expect him to approach the Whitewater job with a zeal for thoroughness. He will probably reinvestigate some areas already covered even as he moves into new ones. There's a lot of wood to chop, and no telling where his ax will fall.

With reporting by Nina Burleigh/Washington and Andrea Sachs/New York