A STAR-SPANGLED DEFENSE FUND

Clinton's controversial legal defense fund, created last June to raise a projected $2 million for fees in the Whitewater probe and thePaula Jones case, collected $608,000 in its first six months, according to figures disclosed today. Among the 5,865 donors from all 50 states were former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, and entertainers Barbra Streisand, Sean Penn and Garrison Keillor. (The average donation was $104, but the notables contributed the $1,000 limit.) Also on the list: several of Washington's top-tier lobbyists, who gave before Clinton vowed to stop takingsuch donationsafter criticism from Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.