All Quiet on the Republican Front

WASHINGTON: While Ken Starr was busy ignoring William Ginsburg's fairly ridiculous (and quite un-lawyerly) comment about facts and law being "always subordinated to the will of the American people," Washington's real subordinates -- politicians in an election year -- were struggling to find their footing now that "End the probe" is the Beltway's most popular cry.

Democrats, of course, are on the attack, but Republicans have a trickier play: How to support Starr as an enemy of Bill without attaching your name to the investigator's ghastly approval ratings? Arlen Specter hedged with the 'if true' approach: "Unless there is an open and shut case, the kind which would result in a resignation, as happened with President Nixon, I do not think there ought be an impeachment proceeding."

Republicans still want the deed to the high ground if Joe Friday winds up nailing his man. But until Starr can walk up the Hill this summer with an air-tight case, encouraging words from the GOP will be few and far between.