The Cost Of It All

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Taken together, Starr and Clinton's decision to fight to the death will change the way the government works. Until now, it was widely assumed that government officials--the President, the Cabinet, members of Congress--could seek advice from government lawyers without worrying about those conversations becoming public. It is now clear that this and other presidential privileges did not have the force of law; they depended largely on the willingness of a President's enemies and critics not to challenge them. By testing so many prerogatives, Starr and Clinton have made good advice that much harder for Presidents to find.

Although it is too strong to say, as a White House staff member did last week, that "there is now settled law that the President can't consult with his closest advisers," the whole White House staff feels under siege. Some legal experts suggest this shouldn't affect the normal, noncriminal workings of the White House, but that's too technical a reading, especially in a climate when so much that is political has the potential to be criminalized. "Who's to say that there might not be a criminal investigation into the granting of waivers for satellite launches in China, something that's been done since the Bush Administration?" asks a Clinton aide. "It's an institutional nightmare--Presidents will cease confiding in or seeking confidential advice from their senior staffs."

So leaders are likely to try two things instead, both of them bad: form independent and probably unaccountable shadow cabinets outside government, to whom they can go for sensitive advice; or, worse yet, keep their own counsel entirely. And getting good advice in the future will depend on talented people being willing to expose themselves to new legal risks. "If somebody asked me to serve now," says Rozell, "I'd say 'No way.' You'd have to be independently wealthy even to think about it." Some White House staff members in private moments express bitterness about how their friends and colleagues have been hounded and forced to run up huge legal bills. "I will never again work for the U.S. government," one said. "And I've told other people, Don't do it. When you have these high-profile jobs that require Senate confirmation, there's somewhere between a possibility and a certainty that you're going to be investigated."

Part of the gloom will pass once this crew leaves office, and a few years of normalcy could make much of this fretting seem quaint. But that assumes some restoration of restraint: at least a partial dismantling of the political-prosecutorial-press complex that invites journalists to make their careers by bringing down an official, talk shows to boost their ratings by analyzing events that haven't happened yet, political partisans to eviscerate the opposition rather than engage it, and prosecutors to seek more money and more power in pursuit of ever smaller transgressions. For that to happen, the American people will have to be heard, and it is hard to imagine their yelling any louder than they have for the past seven months.