But the investigation has taken a toll on White House aides, many of whom now fear that the special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, is intent on issuing indictments.

"Fitzgerald's office, although very professional, has been very aggressive in pursuing people," the adviser said. "These guys are bullies, and they threaten you."

Republican darling Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and his gang of thugs were bullies and suborners as well, as already reported here. Oh, but, back then, Republicans applauded Starr as "just doing his job," whatever that was. I had a hard time pinning it down because he had a roving commission to investigate anybody and anything in Arkansas. It was surreal.

Now, a Republican U.S. Attorney is Special Counsel, and the shoe is on the other foot.

In the South, they say "What goes around, comes around." Starr, at the behest of the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, made bullying the stock in trade of special prosecutors. He set the standard by which all others will be judged.

This, however, is the first I've heard of the complaints of Fitzgerald "bullying" anybody. Starr was a certified bully who took it out on people who wouldn't lie for him. Only the lunatic fringe or the basic gang of Clinton haters enjoyed that "bullying," but they called it a "proper investigation."

Here, it appears to me that Fitzgerald is being called a "bully" merely because he isn't buying the BS being shoveled out of the White House, and he wants answers to questions every American who has been paying attention for the last five years wants to know. Maybe you had to live in Arkansas back then or be a criminal defense lawyer to appreciate Starr's antics, but, measured against Starr, Fitzgerald is nowhere near a bully.

They've been immune for five years, and they are just now feeling the heat.

Yet another Republican double standard.