What might have been one of Kenneth W. Starr's better weeks has turned out less well than it should have--in PR terms, at least--thanks to a prosecutorial bungle that spurred delighted Clinton surrogates to cry, ''Gestapo!''

An egregiously overbroad Starr subpoena accomplished the improbable feat of making a 1st Amendment martyr out of Sidney L. Blumenthal, a former journalist who had recently gone to work at the White House, amid hoots from pressies that he'd been working there all along. Blumenthal, a confidant of Hillary Rodham Clinton's, has been busily hatching conspiracy theories--some call him G.K., for Grassy Knoll--and masterminding attacks on Starr.

The subpoena for Blumenthal was hastily drafted by prosecutors furious about a barrage of Clinton-camp smear tactics, including rumors about two of their colleagues' sex lives. The subpoena raised legitimate concerns about the danger of prosecutors' persecuting their critics, especially those who act as sources for reporters. The press went into a predictable 1st Amendment frenzy, diverting attention from at least three revealing White House moves, all of which may prove more important in the long run: