Reconciliation and Work

The nation has finally entered the twilight of the now tainted presidency of Bill Clinton, a talented man whose weaknesses have undermined him. Has this tortuous affair irreparably eroded the political and moral underpinnings of our nation? Is it true, as Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) put it so gravely, that the nation is suffering a measure of cynicism that is an “acid eating away at the vital organs of American public life”?

Decidedly, it is not true. Americans are resilient, and our constitutional system has withstood far more severe assaults over the past 210 years and will easily survive this one. This never was a crisis that took the nation to the brink. The healing will take time, of course. We already are in a new election cycle in which each party will flog lingering impeachment issues that it thinks will work to its advantage. That’s politics.

The Senate’s votes on Friday provided no triumph for any of the players in this yearlong drama. The only relief was that it was over. But the failure Friday to win even a majority of Senate support for either article of impeachment was a severe repudiation of the case assembled by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr and prosecuted by the 13 trial managers from the House of Representatives.

Dismissing the public desire for a speedy resolution, the House managers insisted that a harsh censure was not enough, that they had to pursue their constitutional responsibility to the end. And in the end, the system worked precisely as the founding fathers had envisioned: The political passions of the House majority were balanced, and negated, by the Senate’s more considered judgment of what was best for the country.

No Victory for Clinton

This certainly was no victory for Clinton, whose appalling lack of judgment, personal morality and common sense brought this sordid mess down upon himself. The American public knew from the beginning that their president had conducted himself shamefully. They knew he lied about and tried to cover up what he had done. The Senate failed to censure Clinton, for tactical political reasons. Nevertheless, the president still was roundly and appropriately condemned in the harshest of terms by individual senators of both parties. His record will be marked by this ignominy.

So today we are left with a president who is largely seen as a liar and a cad for his personal wrongdoing, yet enjoys strong public support for his extraordinary governing ability. The nation remains sound economically, and Clinton’s agenda includes issues such as education and Social Security reform that have strong public appeal. Other presidents have remained effective under dire conditions--Harry Truman, for example, after creating a public opinion firestorm by firing war hero Douglas MacArthur as commander of forces in the Korean War in 1951. There is no reason to believe that Clinton necessarily is rendered politically crippled by the Monica Lewinsky affair.

Divided Result for Congress

In Congress, the Senate emerges a stronger, more cohesive body following a trial that was conducted with relative dignity and fairness by its leaders, Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). Among individual senators who distinguished themselves was California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who labored mightily if unsuccessfully in recent weeks to fashion a tough, bipartisan censure resolution. Feinstein felt betrayed by Clinton but also knew that removal from office would not serve the nation. Her level-headed determination merits our appreciation.

In the House, the GOP is a shambles. Stung by 1998 election losses, Republicans gambled heavily on a quick push for impeachment and removal based on Starr’s report. Their own moralistic outrage at Clinton blinded them to public sentiment, which was crying out for a punishment that was proportional to the president’s offenses--offenses that at no time endangered the nation or our Constitution. House managers never seemed to understand that the public saw their dogged pursuit of Clinton for what it essentially was: a raw partisan attack, one that threatened to become a political version of murder-suicide.

GOP leaders insist that the impeachment debacle will not hurt the party in an election that still is 21 months off. But they surely realize that potential Republican House candidates must decide now whether they are going to run. How many will see the public anger in today’s opinion polls and decide that 2000 is not the best year to carry the GOP banner into a tough election fight?

End the Independent Counsel Law

But the impeachment experience has produced one possible bipartisan agreement: that Congress and the administration should let the current independent counsel law lapse in June. The nation needs some mechanism for investigating alleged abuse by high officeholders. Clearly, however, the present law is too broadly and loosely drawn. A zealous, unchecked independent counsel should never again be allowed to spend five years and up to $50 million groping in every possible dark corner of an administration in hopes of finding something.

Indeed, there is still the prospect of a Justice Department investigation of Democrats’ allegations that Starr had a conflict of interest in his decision to investigate the Lewinsky affair because of undisclosed contacts with lawyers for Paula Corbin Jones, whose sexual harassment suit against Clinton was pivotal in the impeachment process. The claims seem worthy of examination, but there is no public taste for following these or other post-impeachment threads to a bitter end. To do so would only exacerbate the root cultural conflict that bitterly divides the political right from the left.

No Vendettas, Lots of Work

And what should we expect now from the central character, Bill Clinton? The best course is for Clinton to put his head down and work. Still, if there is to be any major achievement in the next two years, it will require a measure of compromise between Clinton and the very Republicans in Congress who tried to kick him out of office. That will not be easy. But both sides desperately need some solid achievements if they are to restore credibility and get government moving again. They cannot do it without each other. This too is part of the system that the founders assembled 210 years ago and that has survived so well.

The most obvious challenges to both Congress and the administration are fiscal reforms of Social Security and Medicare. The problems are complex and will take considerable cooperative effort to solve. But both sides are committed to the issues, which offer maximum payoff in terms of public support. Even partial solutions during this term of Congress would be major achievements, and possibly healing ones.

In voting its articles of impeachment Dec. 19, the House did not reject revenge, as we urged. But the Senate did. After the vote, Clinton expressed the right mixture of contrition and determination to try to salvage something good from the last 23 months of his term, as he called for a period of reconciliation and renewal. He took a solid step in that direction by taking responsibility for causing the past year’s events.

“I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and the American people,” Clinton said. “ . . . I hope all Americans--here in Washington and throughout our land--will rededicate ourselves to the work of serving our nation and building our future together. This can be and this must be a time of reconciliation and renewal for America.” There was no indication that he intends to conduct a vendetta against his political enemies; in response to a question he said that anyone who seeks forgiveness should also be willing to forgive.

Let it be so, Mr. President. There’s been much psychobabble about the “bad” Clinton and the “good” Clinton. The nation has had to endure much, as the weaknesses and prevarications of the “bad” have been revealed in excruciating detail. Enough. Just do what you said Friday you would do and help Americans remember why they twice elected you as the nation’s chief executive.