"Starr lives on," says TIME Washington correspondent Viveca Novak. "He was never going to charge Clinton -- that's not his job. His job is to send a report to the Hill." Whether or not Republicans can muster the political will to take on Clinton is not Starr's problem, and the shrinking legal target (without Paula Jones, perjury in a weak civil case is now perjury in a nonexistent one) isn't either.
The same goes for Starr's approval ratings, which were already abysmal -- and will surely sink further now that the White House has gleefully renewed calls for the independent counsel to close up shop. What does Starr care? He's not a politician -- he's just a cop.