The prosecutor's team in Arkansas "turned the whole state upside down," Lyons said. And as to whether the president perjured himself or suborned Lewinsky's perjury, "they assumed Clinton's guilt, and they set out to prove it, no matter how they were going to get there," he said.

Both Isikoff and Lyons have authored or co-authored books about the scandals.

Starr's investigation, which resulted in the trial and conviction of 14 former Clinton associates on charges ranging from bribery to perjury, cost taxpayers more than $50 million dollars, according to a just-released General Accounting Office report.

Since he stepped down from the post in February, Starr has lectured around the country. He is currently an adjunct professor of law at New York University.

The Forum event was Alan Simpson's last. Taking the lectern after Starr had finished, Simpson left the audience with a few of his homemade pearls of wisdom. The final one, which he said applied to himself, to Starr and to any politician, was an appeal for moral judgement.

"If we have integrity, nothing else matters. If we don't have integrity, nothing else matters," he said.