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I also realized that I could not afford to manifest any anger. Keep in mind, I was always mad at myself because I asked for the special counsel and it was a horrible mistake. I really thought it was an up-and-up deal. The thing that really angered me was I felt helpless because I felt like I had set in motion a chain of events in a good-faith effort to reassure mostly the press more than the American people--the people didn't care--that I hadn't done anything wrong in Whitewater and neither had Hillary. And now Hillary, Susan McDougal, all these people in Arkansas, they were being crushed because of these events, and I couldn't help them. Look, I figured I'm big enough to take care of myself, I made the mistake of asking for this, I thought it was a legit deal, and I'll just keep performing as President, and if I survive and stay healthy, when I leave the White House then I'll make enough money to pay my bills and go on. I didn't worry nearly as much about that as I did about everybody else, and I felt so helpless. I thought, I'm in the one position on earth, the presidency of the United States. It's supposed to be the most powerful job on earth. And on this one thing, it's the most powerless job. I cannot do anything to help these people.
On his contention that Starr was an "instrument in a grand design"
Starr knew what he was supposed to do. And I think he did it. You look at who all of his major clients were, all of his major political alliances, you look at the effort he made to get into the Paula Jones case from the beginning. He was part of the New Right that runs the Washington Republican Party. As opposed to the Republicans out in America, mainline Republicans. This was not about evidence. This was about a struggle for power. I think that they really saw us as usurpers. They thought the only reason they lost the election to Jimmy Carter was Watergate. They thought they had found a formula to describe us in a way that would basically move us out of consideration with the American people, rooted in the receding memory of the '60s. You know, weak on crime, fiscally irresponsible, never met a tax we didn't like, never met a program we didn't like, couldn't defend the country.
If you believe that you're entitled to rule and that the most important thing is that the right people be in power, then it makes you vulnerable to the abuse of power. They honestly believe that the most important thing is that people that espouse conservative values and antigovernment policies and their economic philosophy be in power. So of course there should be a different set of rules for them than everybody else because the most important thing is to kick everybody else out.
On his relationship with Monica Lewinsky
You know the Greek adage "those whom the gods would destroy they first make angry"? It's not good for a person to be as mad underneath as I was. I think if people have unresolved anger it makes them do nonrational, destructive things. People ask me all the time, they say, "What you did during the government shutdown with Monica Lewinsky didn't make any sense, so explain. How could you do this? You knew Ken Starr was looking over your shoulder."