Starr, whose standing with the public and even with his legal peers has eroded during the Lewinsky investigation, has rarely spoken publicly during the last year. His appearance today - his first chance to argue his case in person - will be his biggest high-wire performance in a life at the top of Washington's legal establishment.
``The Ken Starr I see portrayed is not the Ken Starr I know,'' said Tex Lezar, a Dallas lawyer who worked in top Justice Department positions with Starr and has remained a friend. ``I suspect Ken will be Ken. He will put the facts forward, and he will try to make people understand the importance of some of the underlying issues.''
Starr will make a two-hour opening statement and answer questions in an unfamiliar, rough-and-tumble venue. Starr, who had never been a prosecutor before the Whitewater investigation, is a man more accustomed to the rarefied world of the Supreme Court and the federal appeals court in Washington. The fractious, highly partisan Judiciary Committee is anything but courtly.
``He will be out of his element,'' said Ronald Rotunda, a University of Illinois law professor who is serving as a consultant to Starr's investigation. ``This is not something he is used to doing.''
Committee Democrats are striving to embarrass Starr. They intend to ask him about leaks, about aggressive prosecutorial tactics, and about potential legal conflicts.
Committee Republicans are trying to stage-manage the event. Judiciary Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R., Ill.) rejected a White House request to question Starr for 90 minutes. Instead, Clinton lawyers will get 30 minutes. In his letter to White House counsel Charles F.C. Ruff, Hyde said presidential lawyers would be restricted to questioning Starr about the allegations against the President and the facts and evidence.
