PERSPECTIVE ON POLITICS : Clinton’s Time Is Up : He should quit before the next scandal does the Democrats in. Tsongas has the right stuff to lead the battle against Bush.

Bill Clinton should withdraw from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination before Tuesday’s primary contest in New Hampshire. Democrats now should rally behind Paul Tsongas, the most substantive and courageous of the remaining candidates.

Questions about Clinton’s personal life and his avoidance of military service--and the prospect of new charges as his campaign continues--have rendered his nomination impossible and already are hurting the Democratic Party’s chances for victory over President Bush in November. So long as the Arkansas governor remains on center stage, the focus on his character and behavior will obscure the substantive issues in the campaign and cripple the efforts of the other four Democratic aspirants.

As recently as a week ago, it seemed likely that Clinton could fight back charges about his relationship with his friend, Gennifer Flowers, and other women and reassert his position as front-runner and putative Democratic nominee. Then the draft-evasion allegation surfaced, and rumors abound of new charges to come.

Most disturbingly, Clinton and his associates have responded by changing their stories, trying to shift blame to imagined enemies ranging from the tabloid press to Wall Street, and by showing a chicken-fried contempt for the intelligence of the media and ordinary citizens.

Clinton’s appeal, at the beginning, was based on his “electability” as a border state moderate who could cut into the Republican presidential election heartland in the South and border states. But, during his present troubles, his support has evaporated in that heartland, where patriotism and the sanctity of marriage are highly prized. The governor, because of the charges and his manipulative responses to them, has moved within a matter of days from being a possible winner to a certain loser.

The other four Democratic candidates in New Hampshire, by contrast, are carrying no such baggage. They deserve the chance to test themselves against each other free of the noise surrounding Clinton.

The new Democratic front-runner in New Hampshire, former Massachusetts Sen. Tsongas, has waged a long and lonely battle for the Democratic nomination, which he began last March, when President Bush enjoyed enormous strength in opinion polls. Alone among the candidates, he has had the guts to go against the pollster/consultant conventional wisdom and make the case for policies and programs that would be painful for the electorate but would in the end, get the country moving.

Tsongas may well turn out to be the real-life replay of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” the Jimmy Stewart movie about a plain man who became a national hero because he dared to speak the truth. A solid New Hampshire victory by Tsongas, absent the distraction of Clinton, could send him on his way. With his own 800 number, and newspaper and television appeals for money and volunteers, it is easy to imagine the beginnings of not just a political drive for the White House but a genuine national movement.

On the other hand, if Tsongas loses fair and square in New Hampshire to Tom Harkin, Bob Kerrey or Jerry Brown, then all of the candidates and their platforms will have a chance for subsequent side-by-side comparison.

The late entry of a “new” Democratic candidate--no doubt one of the aspirants who had no nerve for the race when Bush looked strong--would be a disservice to the party and the country.

If the economy fails to turn up as expected, Democrats will have a chance for the White House this year. Even if they fail to win, they need a presidential nominee who will strengthen rather than weaken the chances of Democratic congressional, state and local candidates. They also need a nominee whose platform, not his personal life, will be the focus of national attention.

Painful as it may be for him, Bill Clinton should recognize this and withdraw.