So, who is this Ken Starr cowboy, anyway?

As we all have come to learn, our President has been exercising interesting behavior in the White House for some time now. Yup, it's clear. The evidence is there. It's even on the web and in Newsweek for all of us to read in gruesome detail. Not only has he been engaged in a sexual affair, but he has lied and misled the nation for seven months.

We've all been talking about it. From the dining hall to the lab to the supermarket, there's no escaping the cigar jokes. The over-detailed report has spread like a wild fire in gale force winds. School kids are asking what it's all about, Congress is furious, and the people are wondering what it all means and where our country is headed in the next few months.

We all know that Clinton has been doing some pretty unacceptable things in the most prestigious and powerful office in the world. In fact, Clinton's burning desires and inappropriate behavior have probably cost him this office - an office he's supposedly devoted his life to obtaining.

I certainly don't believe that what President Clinton has been up to is right and I far from approve of our President conducting the nation's business while an intern performs sexual acts on him. It's not a pretty picture, but apparently Clinton can do two things at once quite well - and for the extracurricular activities, he's about to get the boot.

What did this country elect him to do? We picked him to be the leader of our nation, already knowing that he was very likely an adulterer. We knew who he was and what he was at the time we voted him into office - twice!

But, when you get down to it, who is this Ken Starr cowboy? Step back for a moment and think what we would all be thinking this September, if Ken Starr had not strayed from the Whitewater investigation. Most of us would be relatively happy with Bill and that'd be that. After all, he has presided over the most peaceful presidency this century. Our economy has been booming, and unemployment is at an all-time low. Not a bad legacy.

Instead, our country is preparing for what could be a terrible impeachment process, based on something far from the Constitution's intent. Starr has incapacitated much of our government, paralyzing the daily business of our capital. He's tied up resources, from Congress's precious time to our hard-earned tax dollars.

It's even more alarming than that. Stop and think for a minute. When impeachment occurs, the person we elected may be removed from office. Our votes become invalidated. Impeachment can take away one of our most treasured rights - the right to privately cast a ballot and elect our nation's leader. Ken Starr, an unelected, ultraconservative has been allowed to undo what the people clearly wanted.

Ken Starr has truly made a mockery of our system of government. He has circumvented all three branches of government and left the concept of checks and balances and the constitution on the sidelines - keystones to our democracy that prevent this kind of intolerable investigation and witch hunt from taking place. Starr, not President Clinton, poses the biggest threat to our nation. He's an unelected man who was let loose to dig up the risqu� personal life of an individual - a life that sadly just can't be that different from other lives on Capital Hill.

Starr, the "independent" council, is far from independent. His investigation and power are absolutely frightening. In no way did explicit encounters need to be published in a public document for the entire world to see. We all now know what was going down in the windowless hallway in the west wing, why some intern was bringing a slice of pizza to the President during a government shutdown, and why Monica seemed to have an awful lot of papers to be dropped off in the Oval Office. Yup, Starr, we know now. Thanks. I feel a lot better knowing all of this.

The entire witch hunt (a term probably more appropriate than "investigation") snowballed into what has become a truly tragic story. Way back when, Starr was the guy who was supposed to tell us if our President had lied about some poor investment choices back in Arkansas. Somehow, Starr was allowed to dump the boring Whitewater investment investigation that was going nowhere and go for the steamy (but not illegal) side of Bill's life. Ken Starr has had an agenda from day one: destroy the nation's leader and his office.