By MARK MORRIS

The Star 

Old political scandals don’t really die. They just go to the courts to linger on life support.

Case in point:

Today, a three-judge panel of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request from Whitewater – yes, Whitewater – defendant Susan H. McDougal to unseal documents from her 13-year-old civil contempt case. In September 1996, McDougal refused to testify before a Whitewater grand jury and was subsequently incarcerated for 18 months, the maximum allowed for civil contempt.

Last year, McDougal asked a federal court in Arkansas to lift the seal placed on records in her cases so she could review grand jury materials. A district judge found that the material should remain secret.

Writing for the panel, Circuit Judge Diana E. Murphy found that McDougal had shown no “particularized need” for the grand jury materials. Murphy also noted that McDougal’s appeals brief and argument “suggest that her request for access was motivated by a desire to recount in a screenplay or novel (former Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth) Starr’s allegedly coercive tactics in the Whitewater investigation.”

Can't wait for the book.