The GOP Appeals Court Sticks it to Clinton

We shed no tears over the Clintons' financial situation; the former president is pulling in millions as a speaker, after all, while his wife enjoys book best-sellerdom. But the decision is important for two reasons. First, its analysis will presumably also apply in cases involving lower-level witnesses swept up in the investigation -- people who have done nothing wrong yet who incurred significant expenses during the probe. Second, the court's approach here is dramatically inconsistent with the way it handled fee requests during the Iran-contra affair, when it awarded fees liberally and openly clucked at the investigative choices of the prosecutors. The role of the special court and its presiding judge, David B. Sentelle, in the Whitewater affair have been controversial ever since the court appointed Mr. Starr back in 1994. That it barely pretends to employ the same standards for the Clintons as for past presidents can only increase skepticism as to its performance.