Kenneth Starr endorses Sotomayor. What will Rush Limbaugh say?

It happened just over 10 years ago.

Monica Lewinsky, a young White House intern, had an affair with President Bill Clinton.

And special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, the former solicitor general and judge charged with investigating whether Clinton lied to a grand jury about it, issued a report that sparked a personal and political crisis. First Lady Hillary Clinton wasn't speaking to her husband. Official Washington was paralyzed. Clinton's presidency effectively ended early.

Now dean of Pepperdine University Law School, Starr -- whose own hopes for the high court were dashed by his partisan and, some felt, needlessly salacious report on Clinton's meanderings -- is now endorsing Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court.

In a keynote address at Loyola Law School on Thursday, the man whose report was the basis for the Clinton impeachment trial said he "thinks very well" of Sotomayor.

The first Latina nominated to the court, Sotomayor has twice visited Pepperdine to participate in a program for judicial clerks, according to Mother Jones. "She was a huge hit with the students," Starr said.

As Sotomayor developments go, this one is kind of delicious. Will an endorsement by Starr, a member of the conservative Federalist Society, make it more difficult for Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh or any Republican in the U.S. Senate to oppose Sotomayor?

Watch this space. The Ticket will be chronicling the Sotomayor experience, from nomination to confirmation.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo credit: Dan Loh/Associated Press of Monica Lewinsky and her attorney, William Ginsburg.

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Comments

[Gromit]

I cannot speak for Starr, and it's entirely possible he's telling the whole truth / genuinely thinks the world of Sotomayor. But,

many conservatives, including myself (to be candid), have taken this sort of approach in deciding not to oppose her vigorously and, perhaps, even to voice some mild support for her:

1. Because the Dems have a nearly filibuster-proof majority AND SCOTUS confirmation votes are essentially never filibustered anyway, Obama is going to get whomever he likes, absent obvious scandal.

2. Sotomayor, though obviously qualified, hardly matches up against the current conservative titans on the Court in terms of her writing ability. To pick a liberal example, she's no William Brennan.

3. So wouldn't it be better (... some conservatives believe) to allow Sotomayor to be put onto the Court instead of another pick who may be a much better writer, younger and/or more liberal -- and just as unstoppable in the Senate?

Conservatives could do a lot worse than Sotomayor, it seems. (And they probably will, when Stevens and Ginsburg retire.)