Starr Gazing

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

July 21, 1998 / 6:16 PM EDT / CBS

Republican Special Prosecutor Ken Starr, Monica Lewinsky's lawyers and President Clinton's legal team went into a federal appeals court hearing Tuesday.

The hearing was closed, held in secret. Whether such secret court proceedings are constitutional and whether - even if so - they are a good idea in a Democratic country such as ours is a question worth discussing.

But perhaps not today, except to note that there seems to be an increasing number of such secret court proceedings as the Starr effort to prove some criminal activity on the part of the president and/or Mrs. Clinton drags on.

Today's secret proceedings apparently, allegedly, reportedly and supposedly concerned allegations by President Clinton's lawyers that Starr, in his zeal to prove something, anything against the Clintons, has been improperly giving secret grand jury information to the press.

You may recall that Starr has admitted to journalist and publisher Steven Brill that he and his top deputy briefed selected friendly reporters about his investigation. This leaking was done on a don't quote me, not for attribution basis.

Some of the reporters took what amounted to the spoon-fed leaks, apparently didn't check them out, just went straight to print and /or air with them.

This, at least, is the general claim. The president's lawyers point out that grand jury testimony is supposed to be secret. Because, after all, a grand jury is supposed to be deciding whether or not a case can be taken to trial. That is what a grand jury is charged with doing.

Starr's contention is that he has done nothing illegal. Nor, says he, has he done anything unethical. Others, not all of them Democrats, say just the opposite.

The journalists involved in the alleged leaking must answer for themselves. It is a fact that some of the leaks turned out to be untrue.

All of which simply underscores how rough and tumble, how down and dirty, brutal and mean this whole case has become on all sides.

If you're asking, when does it end? Is the end anywhere in sight? The answer is: Nobody knows. Perhaps not even Starr himself.

Some believe that he will, indeed, must deliver something before this fall's elections. But there are others - many - who believe, no, Starr intends to just keep going right on through the elections and beyond.

If the case is about to reach some important watershed anytime soon it is not clear from the facts at hand. And today's secret court session doesn't help.