“Winning isn’t the best thing. It’s the only thing.” — Vince Lombardi

Remember Kenneth Starr? He led the investigation of President Bill Clinton’s dalliance with 23-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky[1].

Starr conducted a thorough (creepy, over-zealous, bizarre, voyeuristic) investigation of the Bill & Monica Affair, which cost U.S. taxpayers in excess of $42 million, which seems like a lot. Starr was the head of the investigation, and he did not shy away from digging into it like Javert hounding Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.

Starr was thought by many, including many Republicans, to be stroking, so to speak, the story a little too much. Why did Starr invest so much time and energy and taxpayer money into such a story – was it merely for political reasons, or was he titillated by the tawdry aspects of the behavior of the middle-aged man and the young woman?

He’s not saying. It seems safe to say he was overreaching. Starr was oddly obsessed.

So now guess what? Ken Starr just lost his job.

“We were horrified by the extent of these acts of sexual violence on our campus,” Richard Willis, chairman of the Baylor Board of Regents, declared in removing Mr. Starr as the university’s president. Starr was president of Baylor University, the largest Baptist institution of higher learning in the country. He is able to hang onto a job at the school, as chancellor, but was fired from being president of Baylor University.

Why was Starr punished? Why the humiliating demotion?

Starr was at the helm of Baylor University when the school failed to properly investigate and respond to sexual allegations of crimes.  That’s right; he was under-reactive. These reports of criminal sexual conduct were made against members of the Baylor University football team.

There was plenty of fire with the smoke. Sam Ukwuanchu, was convicted of a sex crime, and was sentenced to six months in jail. Tevin Elliott was convicted of a sex crime and sentenced to 20 years in prison. At least six women came forward to allege sexual abuse by football players at Baylor. The Board of Regents of Baylor University, in their Finding of Facts Report, stated that “Baylor University looked the other way when BU football players were accused of, and sometimes convicted, of sex crimes.”

So Ken Starr, former overzealous investigator, has now lost his university presidency because of his failure to give proper response when the accusations of sexual abuse came to his attention. These incidents included actual rape — criminality — not just activities between consenting adults. Yet Starr wasn’t able to work up his famous moral outrage.

Maybe he took to heart those past criticisms of his over-zealousness. Perhaps he thought football success was more important to the university than safety of the students. His failure to be duly diligent certainly led to that conclusion. As does the 23-page published decision from the board, and the law firm hired to conduct an impartial investigation. The Board of Regents saw a serious problem[2].

The coach was fired. Starr lost his position as president of the college. He remains at BU as chancellor.

Maybe Ken will get it right the next time. Like Goldilocks and her soup: not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

Sources:
New York Times, NBC Nightly News, Baylor University Finding of Facts

[1] It wouldn’t have been seemly to have had Newt Gingrich look into the matter. Newt was, shall we say, deeply involved with his own extramarital affair at the time.
[2] Baylor University Board of Regents Findings of Facts (23 pages, available online)