Whitewater Controversy - Epilogue

Epilogue

Bill and Hillary Clinton never visited the actual Whitewater property. In May 1985, Jim McDougal had sold the remaining lots of the failed Whitewater Development Corporation to local realtor Chris Wade. By 1993, there were a few occupied houses on the site, but mostly just "For Sale" signs; after swarms of Whitewater reporters made the trek there, one owner hung a sign saying "Go Home, Idiots." By 2007, there were about 12 houses in the subdivision, with the last lot up for sale by son Chris Wade, Jr. for $25,000. In Flippin, Jim McDougal's savings and loan bank had been replaced by a variety of small businesses, most recently a barbershop.

The length, expense, and results of the greater Whitewater investigations turned much of the public against the Independent Counsel mechanism. In particular, Democrats portrayed Whitewater as a political witch-hunt, much as Republicans had at the end of the 1980s Iran-Contra investigations. As such, the Independent Counsel law expired in 1999, with critics saying it cost too much with too few results; even Kenneth Starr favored the law's demise. Indeed no one ended up happy with the Whitewater investigation: Democrats felt that the investigation was a political witch-hunt, Republicans were frustrated that both Clintons had escaped formal charges, and people without partisan involvement found press coverage of Whitewater's facts and narratives, which spanned four decades, difficult to understand to the point of bafflement.