BACKGROUND | IMPEACHMENT | PLAYERS | TIMELINE

Profile: Kenneth Starr Kenneth Starr Friends and colleagues describe Kenneth Starr, 52, as a cerebral, slightly stiff man of unfailing good manners. Born in Thalia, Texas, he reportedly has never been known to smoke, drink or curse. He attended Harding College in Searcy, Ark., George Washington University and Duke University law school, after which he clerked for then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger. He served as solicitor general in the Bush administration. He is a lifelong Republican with a million-dollar private law practice. THE PLAYERS Betty Currie Lucianne Goldberg Paula Jones Vernon Jordan Monica Lewinsky Kenneth Starr Linda Tripp Since August 1994 Starr has been hovering over Bill Clinton's shoulder, peering at every memo in the White House and raking over every financial and political transaction of Clinton's career -- from his election in 1978 as governor of Arkansas right up to the Monica Lewinsky affair. Starr is married to Alice Jean Mendell. They have two daughters and a son. Starr's original brief as independent counsel was to investigate what has come to be known as the Whitewater affair -- allegations springing from a failed land development project in Arkansas. Then-Gov. Clinton was accused of turning a blind eye to the financial misdemeanors of his business partner, Jim McDougal. In May 1996 McDougal, his wife, Susan, and Clinton's successor as governor, Jim Guy Tucker, were convicted on 24 counts of conspiracy and a $3 million fraud. By then Starr had widened his target. He was authorized to investigate charges that the White House staff had obstructed the original Whitewater inquiry -- and to look into two other "gates." The first, Travelgate, centered on claims that Hillary Clinton had purged the White House's internal travel office, handing the lucrative contract to a Clinton cousin. She denied any role in that decision. Next came Filegate, the claim that Clinton aides had dug up FBI files on hundreds of Republicans. Starr grilled Mrs. Clinton about claims that the FBI files were sought on her orders. Then came the most serious claims of all: the accusations of obstruction of justice, suborning aides to commit perjury and making false statements. His target: President Clinton himself. By Scripps Howard News Service