Ken Starr sings hymns while he jogs in the woods near his Washington suburban home and comes from the same humble southern background as President Clinton, who also jogs and likes to sing hymns.
But Mr Starr must seem more like an avenging angel than a fellow-southerner as his report as independent counsel paves the way for the US President's possible impeachment and disgrace, just when he should be enjoying the honours of a second term.
The report, delivered to Congress on Wednesday afternoon, comes at the end of four years of Mr Starr's dogged investigation of the Clintons' role in the failed Whitewater property development in Arkansas and, since last January, of the President's relationship with the former White House intern, Ms Monica Lewinsky.
Washington has come to see the investigation as a duel between two vastly different characters. A duel which could spell either the humiliating end of Mr Clinton's presidency or the ridiculing of a goofy judge who got out of his depth in the pursuit of a popular President.
It became a daily ritual for the TV cameras to assemble outside Mr Starr's fairly modest home in Virginia and record the images of his getting into his car juggling a Starbuck's coffee and a briefcase. For a while he would stop and chat to reporters as he also brought out the rubbish bins, but as this domestic scene was satirised, Mr Starr restricted his contact with the media to a cheery wave and grin.
During the chatty phase he liked to compare his role with that of Joe Friday in the Dragnet TV series whose motto was "Just the facts, ma'am".
As the Lewinsky investigation dragged on, Mr Starr became a hate figure to Clinton supporters, a number of whom were also being summoned by Mr Starr to testify to a grand jury.
Mr Harold Ickes, former deputy chief-of-staff to the President, said that Mr Starr saw the Clintons as "Sodom and Gomorrah and is hell-bent on runnning them out of Washington".
Mr James Carville, a colourful adviser to the President, said: "I don't think Mr Starr is out to get the truth. He is out to get the President." Mrs Hillary Clinton herself has described Mr Starr as a "politically motivated prosecutor".
When he was first appointed in 1994, the White House was assured by its then legal counsel that Mr Starr would be scrupulously fair in his investigation. But any neutral feelings towards Mr Starr were replaced by anger when he made Mrs Clinton come to the federal courthouse in Washington in full media glare to testify in his Whitewater investigation. Mr Starr could have taken her evidence in the White House but chose not to do so.
Observers believe that by this time Mr Starr himself was angry at what he saw as a pattern of evasion and stalling by the Clintons. He would have kept such feelings well hidden behind the exterior of southern courtesy.
His origins are fairly humble. He was born in 1946 in the small Texas town of Vernon, where his father was both a barber and a fundamentalist minister. He was raised in the local Church of Christ, which did not tolerate drinking, smoking or dancing.
By working for a Republican congressman on Capitol Hill, Mr Starr was able to finish his degree at George Washington University. He was exempted from the draft for the Vietnam war because of severe skin rash and moved to the prestigious Duke University for law studies.
He landed a post as law clerk with the then chief justice of the Supreme Court, Warren Burger, putting him on a fast track to the legal heights. His ambition was to serve on the bench of the highest court in the land and be the chief justice one day himself, according to friends.
But having the right politics is an essential condition for this career path as the judges are appointed by the president of the day. Hence it made sense for Mr Starr to take a senior post in the Reagan administration as senior counsel to the attorney general.
His next step was also a good career move. He was appointed a US appeals court judge on the Washington circuit, often seen as an ante-chamber to the Supreme Court. For a conservative judge, he made some decisions which pleased liberals, such as overturning a libel judgment against the Washington Post and ruling that an Orthodox Jew should be allowed to wear his religious skull cap while on military duty. He also ruled in favour of an artist whose mural had lampooned President Reagan.
In 1989 President Bush asked Mr Starr to be solicitor-general, a post which involved arguing the government's appeals before the Supreme Court. But Mr Starr's four years in this job damaged his prospects for an eventual call to the highest court.
He courageously argued against the administration in one case, which did not help him when Mr Bush came to make the next Supreme Court appointment. Mr Starr also argued vigorously against abortion in a Bush administration appeal against the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision legalising abortion. This helped his reputation with the pro-life conservatives but was also seen as harming his chances for the Supreme Court with liberals in the Senate who would have to approve any appointment.
Mr Starr returned to million dollar-a-year private practice, which included work for the tobacco lobby, when President Clinton came to office. His friends were amazed when he took on the job of independent counsel.
One of them, Mr Henry Habicht, who worked with him under Mr Ronald Reagan believes religion was a factor. "Reading between the lines, I think Ken believed that since God had put him in all these lofty posts he had a duty to use his experience when a public service challenge arose."
Nevertheless, Mr Starr just over a year ago announced that he was going to leave the independent counsel post and take up an offer to be dean of the Pepperdine law school in San Diego. There was such an outcry at his giving up before ending the Whitewater investigation that he changed his mind and stayed.
Then along came Ms Monica Lewinsky and the Linda Tripp tapes of her conversations about her affair with President Clinton. The man who would be chief justice was back on his relentless quest "for the facts, just the facts".
Now the facts will be there for all the world to see.