JIM LEHRER: Congress will release another batch of documents from the Kenneth Starr investigation tomorrow. They come as a prelude to a decision on whether to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Clinton. The Starr investigation that led to the documents and to the proceedings has been the subject of much debate. Margaret Warner now samples that disagreement with two columnists who have written extensively about it.

MARGARET WARNER: And those columnists are Anthony Lewis of the New York Times and Stuart Taylor of National Journal and Newsweek. Tony Lewis, you’ve been scathing in your criticism of Ken Starr’s investigation and his tactics, and last week you said it was essentially illegitimate, an illegitimate process. Explain what you mean by illegitimate.

ANTHONY LEWIS: That would be a long explanation, Ms. Warner, because I think in a great number of ways Kenneth Starr and his people have behaved like overzealous prosecutors in ways that no other federal prosecutor would be allowed to do. Take, for example, when Mr. Starr’s men confronted Monica Lewinsky in the Ritz Carlton Hotel on January 16th. She was told we’re going to bring 27 felony counts against you unless you cooperate with us. Now that was absurd and outrageous. Then they said she couldn’t call her lawyer. They kept her for there for 10 hours and not letting her call her lawyer, and they denigrated her lawyer, Frank Carter, and said, well, he’s not a criminal lawyer anyway, and so he couldn’t help you. And when she wanted to call her mother, instead, you know, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Starr’s deputy, said, oh, you don’t want to call your mommy. It was an overbearing and entirely unfair procedure. Any of us can understand that it’s wrong not to let somebody call a lawyer. That’s basic.

MARGARET WARNER: Was it so unfair that it de-legitimizes, though, the entire process, the entire investigation, the fruits or results of the investigation?