American attorney and former White House deputy counsel for President Bill Clinton (1945-1993). Full name: Vincent Walker Foster, Jr. He had been friends with Clinton since childhood, but his future success didn't depend on the future president. Foster went into law, made partner at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, and was acclaimed as one of the best lawyers in the country.

When Clinton was elected to the presidency, Foster joined his transition team and later signed on as deputy counsel, with a primary responsibility to vet potential appointees. He was only moderately successful at this -- he gave his approval to Zoe Baird, Kimba Wood, and Lani Guinier, all of whom got shot down by the Senate for various reasons both foul and fair. It seems, essentially, that Foster was focusing on whether they'd be productive members of the White House team, and not on whether Republicans in Congress and the press could find something to nitpick about. Foster wasn't enjoying the job anyway -- his family stayed home in Little Rock so his son could finish his senior year in high school, and he didn't have the hard-edge political/campaign background that other members of the administration did. On top of that, he was clinically depressed, and he didn't really realize it. 

In May of 1993, the White House Travel Office scandal erupted, a controversy of such massive and lasting import that I had to go look the damn thing up on Wikipedia to see what it was about. I'm still not entirely sure what the big deal was. But it turned into something people in Washington yelled about for a while. The Wall Street Journal was blaming Foster for the scandal, and Foster, who hated being in the public eye, got more depressed worrying that he'd have to testify before Congress.

Foster got a prescription for low-level anti-depressants over the phone from his doctor in Little Rock in mid-July. The day afterwards, he was found dead in Fort Marcy Park in Virginia. Cause of death was a bullet wound in the mouth. 

Five separate official investigations -- by the United States Park Police with assistance from the FBI; by Independent Counsel Robert B. Fiske; by Rep. William F. Clinger, Jr., ranking Republican on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee; by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; and by Whitewater independent counsel Ken Starr -- all agreed that Foster committed suicide. 

Or did he? Many nincompoops on the Flying Monkey Right insist that he was murdered by order of someone in the White House -- the conspiracy theorists usually blame Hillary. Multiple investigations say otherwise? That just shows how deep the conspiracy goes! (Conspiracy theorists are blithering dumbfucks.)

Vince Foster seems like a nice guy who wasn't cut out for politics and whose depression got the better of him. He probably deserves better than being a hoary in-joke for a bunch of wealthy dirty-tricksters...

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