Moving on

With an acquittal that became increasingly inevitable as events unfolded, the trial of President Clinton is over. Now, the White House and Congress are stuck with each other for two more years. Now, another sort of trial begins.

As Washington lurched toward this conclusion, the message from outside the Beltway has been clear and consistent or months — a substantial majority of the public, while finding the president’s conduct offensive and stupid, wanted this to end. They wanted the government to get back to the business of governing.

The early indications of the degree to which that will happen are not especially encouraging. It is shockingly unwise of the president to be launching a fund-raising campaign for year 2000 congressional candidates while the impeachment fire still smolders. It is over-reaction on the part of his opponents to claim he is seeking revenge against his prosecutors. But then, it is unwise behavior that got the president and the nation into this mess and it is over-reaction that prolonged it.

There are voices of reason. Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are among those who found the president’s conduct, while reprehensible, not worthy of removal from office. They, along with many others, have pledged to work with the president in the nation’s best interests. That is commendable. Unfortunately, it takes only a drop of spite to poison a well of goodwill.

The impeachment process was designed by the framers of the Constitution to be part politics, part trial. The White House and Congress know politics; this would be a good time for them to re-elect upon the trial aspect. Every day, in thousands of courtrooms throughout the country, earnest prosecutors and dedicated defense attorneys go head to head. One wins, one loses. They shake hands and move on. They do not spend the next two years plotting the other’s destruction. Americans deserve no less from their highest elected officials.

The remaining question before the Senate is whether there should be a resolution of censure; Democrats want to be on the record as abhorring the president’s conduct, Republicans want to deny Democrats the cover. Censure or not, just get it over with — it is irrelevant. By becoming only the second president to be impeached, William Jefferson Clinton has written the opening paragraph of his place in history and it can never be erased.

If this shameful episode could be summed up in one word, that word would be betrayal; Congress by excessive partisanship, Monica Lewinsky by her best friend, Kenneth Starr by his own zealotry, the president by his recklessness and disregard for the truth. And it has been said that never before has this country been so immersed in crisis and had no heroes emerge. Now would be as good a time as any for heroes, but in their absence, the nation would settle for reasonable, forgiving mortals.