Pearl Clutching

This is my moment to confess that I've never quite understood the recently popular term "pearl-clutching." I must have missed the movies that were its source. But the five minutes of today's Mafia Mulligan defense by former Clinton impeachment prosecutor Ken Starr made it clear to me.


Starr's verbal delivery was full of genteel phrases like "all due respect" as he proceeded to declare the House impeachment process had "torn asunder" the fabric of our constitution, damaging the rights of the minority (Republicans, of course).

He doesn't care that a minority of Americans elected Mulligan, of course, and it wasn't clear how Mulligan's obstructions — somehow don't constitute obstruction just because Starr said they aren't. His defense of the destruction rested on the president's right to executive privilege, but Mulligan has never formally invoked that privilege. He's just refused to turn over documents and strong-armed witnesses.

As former Solicitor General Walter Dellinger said on Twitter in response,

My former student Judge Starr emphasizes that prior impeachments have been bipartisan. He assumes that is a criticism of Democrats who have proceeded alone rather than of the GOP members who have refused to consider joining in a serious critique of the president's actions.

Helaine Olen called it "three-dimensional gas-lighting" (another film reference).

And Chris Hayes had the topper:

People are pointing out the obvious irony/hypocrisy of Starr decrying the normalization of impeachment, but the deeper message here is pretty clear, though not quite stated: We're absolutely going to impeach the next Democratic president.

Oh, and don't forget that three-and-a-half years ago, Starr resigned as head of Baylor University after an investigation found his administration had failed to respond to sexual assault charges against football players and other students at the university.

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A late addition of outrage from Esquire's Charlie Pierce:

I think the world went all purple and green amphibians when Starr—Ken Fcking Starr, the legendary bed-sniffing yahoo—had the audacity to put the name of the late Peter Rodino in his mouth. It’s a wonder his teeth didn’t burst into flames. Speaking in the condescending tones of a Baptist preacher who you know has bondage gear stashed in a steamer trunk somewhere, Starr presumed to lecture the Senate on the parameters of its constitutional duties.