Censure or Trial for President

Re “One Way Out of a Mess: ‘Censure Plus,’ ” Commentary, Dec. 30, and your Dec. 31 editorial:

The Constitution has laid out a very specific course to deal with the type of situation we face. The House has already fulfilled its obligation by impeaching Bill Clinton and the Senate should proceed with a speedy trial. If Clinton is convicted, he is removed. If President Clinton is not convicted, he will finish his term. The independent counsel will still have the option of trying Clinton for the alleged perjury and other charges after he leaves office. So why talk about censure and “censure plus”?

America will survive with or without Clinton as president for the next two years, as we are a country of institutions and not individuals. As far as the presidency is concerned, it will be up to future presidents to undo the damage done by Clinton.

KRISHNA CHANDRA

Irvine

*

The threats of prosecutors to call witnesses in President Clinton’s trial (Dec. 30) are proof that there is no crime or reason to go on with Kenneth Starr’s waste of our money. If it is still in need of evidence, the Senate should play Monica Lewinsky’s tape, where she repeats several times that it was not sex. Clinton and his family and we, the public, have been through enough. Now Congress is to blame for furthering this ridiculous case.

EDDIE GARDEA

Reseda

*

Cal Thomas (Column Right, Dec. 29) argues that the censure of Clinton by the Senate would be unsatisfactory, since it would deny the president the opportunity of proving his innocence if he could do so and would deny his removal from office if he couldn’t.

Thomas has ignored a third possibility: that the charges against the president do not constitute impeachable offenses. If this were the case and if the president were to be found guilty of the charges, then censure (or something else short of removal) would be the only constitutional course to follow, since to remove a president for charges deemed not to rise to the level of impeachable offenses would surely inflict severe damage on our Constitution.

PETER COPPEN

Santa Ana

*

Defenders of Clinton could do a great service by explaining to the rest of us just how you know when he is telling the truth. We have already discovered that he is crafting another whopper of a lie whenever he wags his finger, or bites his lip, or sheds a tear, or swears a solemn oath. But how can we be reasonably certain of his honesty when he announces that the Y2K problem won’t affect Social Security payments (Dec. 29), or that Iraq fired upon us first?

Those who still insist that character does not matter could help other Americans who no longer know when to trust the president.

JOHN F. TINTLE

Nipomo

*

An immodest proposal: In order to avoid the current confessions, lies and other sex scandals, a simple change in our candidate filing procedures can address these problems. Each candidate should list all past liaisons when filing for office, thereby creating a public record of his/her sex life. Information should include all premarital sexual relationships, age of candidate, age of sexual partner, time and place; all extramarital affairs with single, married and underage partners, age of candidate, age of sexual partner, time and place.

In the booklets that accompany the sample ballot, this information can be given along with other vital statistics like age, marriage, profession, etc. When newspapers devote a box to the vital statistics on each candidate, this information can be added.

Advantages would include elimination of millions of taxpayer dollars currently spent on investigations; emphasis on important news like war, genocide and starvation, rather than sex; and our politicians might have to do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, like all the rest of us.

ELIZABETH M. SURACE

Laguna Hills

*

Consider this: Maybe someday we will be able to control the weather!

For close to a year now the three loftiest branches of our government, working hand in hand, have managed to shroud the nation’s capital in one mighty fine tule fog!

NATALIE FORBES

Ventura