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[SlaveNoMore]

Spanky
You have got to be kidding. Clinton could have avoided the whole thing? Boy did he call that one wrong. My opinion of his political judgement just dropped a few points.

A quick Google pulls up [an otherwise very slanted] article by John Dean, lists the following timeline:

"...It began in March 1992, during the presidential campaign. The New York Times published an article linking the Clintons with the Whitewater Development Corporation and the failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan - and the story transformed a local Arkansas question into a national issue.

By January 1994, after a year in office, President Clinton became so exasperated with the Congressional and media attention to what he and his wife had, or had not, done that he initiated action. He directed Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint a special prosecutor in an effort to silence the criticism. (At the time, the independent counsel statute had expired, as it was designed to do, automatically, every five years.)

Reno appointed a highly respected Republican attorney, Robert Fiske, from New York City, to serve as a special prosecutor to investigate (and prosecute) any criminal wrongdoing. Six months later, after Fiske was well into his investigation, Congress passed the Independent Counsel Reauthorization Act of 1994.

Reno could have followed the precedent of her predecessor, and declined to file an application with the Special Division to appoint an independent counsel. However, she decided to do otherwise, and suggested the Special Division appoint Fiske. The Special Division, however, selected Kenneth Starr, a former colleague and judge from the District of Columbia Circuit. The rest-as they say--is history."