EWU, UI host conservative speakers

The endless battle over liberal academia isn’t likely to be affected much, but two regional colleges are about to welcome a couple of guests from the right.

Former White House spokesman and conservative radio host Tony Snow will speak at Eastern Washington University on Tuesday as part of EWU’s biggest annual lecture series. Meanwhile, the University of Idaho is hosting Kenneth Starr, the attorney and scholar who has become an instant political litmus test over his investigation of President Clinton.

But neither Starr’s appearance Monday at the UI’s Bellwood Lecture – titled “The Enduring Constitutional Conversation: Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Jefferson” – nor a press conference earlier in the day will touch on the Clinton affair, apparently. The UI announced that Starr would not take questions about that.

Starr will speak at 4 p.m. Monday; the lecture is an annual law school event. Don Burnett, dean of the UI College of Law, cited Starr’s long experience as an academic, a judge, an independent counsel and an attorney. Among his current clients is the private Blackwater security firm, in a case brought by the families of four former contractors with the company who died in Iraq. He’s also done recent high-profile pro bono work on behalf of a Virginia death row inmate.

Starr was named independent counsel by a three-judge panel in 1994 to investigate Clinton’s involvement in the Whitewater land transactions, and the investigation ranged into other subjects over four years. Eventually, the $40 million probe produced the Starr report, which led to Clinton’s impeachment over charges that he lied about having sex with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was acquitted and finished his second term.

Snow’s career has spanned politics and journalism. He worked as press secretary for President Bush from May 2006 to September 2007, resigning to deal with colon cancer, which he has said is in remission.

At the time of his hiring at the White House, he drew attention over his public criticism of Bush over spending, among other subjects.

He previously worked under the first President Bush as a speech writer and spokesman.

Between and before his White House jobs, Snow worked as a pundit and host on Fox TV and radio shows after years as a columnist and editorial writer for newspapers.

He’ll speak in a free public lecture Tuesday at 1:30, at Reese Court. Before that, he’s speaking at a $100-a-person luncheon benefiting the lecture series and meeting with students.