Word: counseling
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...result of Starr's conduct during his investigation, it seems clear that Congress will not renew the law this year without substantial revisions. The most urgent flaw of the current statute is that the independent counsel, though himself appointed to oversee and investigate public officials, has no oversight himself. There was no one to monitor him as he spent more than $40 million on his campaign...
...first thing Congress must do is make the independent counsel accountable to someone. Currently, only the attorney general can dismiss independent counsels. But the attorney general is constrained by political considerations. She could hardly dismiss Starr, no matter how badly he conducted his investigation. Why not give the same three-judge panel that appoints independent counsels, or some other non-partisan body, the authority to remove them...
...attorney general should also have tighter control over the scope of future independent counsels' investigations. How Starr, appointed to investigate an Arkansas land venture, managed to get involved in the Lewinsky scandal continues to perplex many. No independent counsel should be a permanent institution; their investigations should be specific and subject to tighter and more regular scrutiny by the attorney general...
Congress must also explicitly define the role of the independent counsel in impeachment proceedings. When evidence of possibly impeachable offenses surfaced last January, Starr conducted the investigations himself, instead of turning it over to Congress, as the independent counsel law requires. In the future, investigations that may lead to the national trauma of impeachment should be entrusted to the House...
...face of the many flaws of the independent counsel statute, there are some in Congress who would rather just see the law expire instead of revising it. This would be a mistake. The basic principle of government oversight on which the law is based is a sound one and it is clear that an independent prosecutor law of some sort is necessary...