The Case Continues

Three weeks ago, we called for President Clinton to resign. Today, with the House voting to launch an open-ended impeachment inquiry, it seems clearer than ever that only resignation could spare us months and months more of detail and debate about a scandal we would all love to forget.

But if the House does go forward with an extensive inquiry, and then votes to impeach the President, a final vote on conviction in the Senate may not take place until next summer. In the meantime, the President will continue to be as hindered as he has appeared to be in the weeks since the Starr Report was delivered to Congress. Staff and supporters will continue to jump ship, other leading Democrats will keep their distance and the media will keep on giving short shrift to substantive issues.

The answer, therefore, is for this impending inquiry to be fast and focused. Let the House decide whether or not to bring this impeachment process to the Senate sooner rather than later. There is business to do in the world--in Kosovo, Russia and the Middle East for starters--and the most important thing for this country to do is to move forward.

We are not prepared to forgive and forget Clinton's misdeeds, but neither are we looking forward to another limitless crusade without concern for law and decency. A Congressional investigation within the bounds of the Constitution may help restore a sense of order to this process--a sense broached by a reckless and partisan independent counsel investigation.

Despite Kenneth Starr's prodigious output, important and unanswered questions remain: Did the President obstruct justice? Did he use White House staff to cover up his affair and his lies about it? Did he tamper with witnesses?

The impeachment process, however, was designed by the Founders to be, and certainly has turned to be, more of a political process than a legal one. The strictly partisan vote of 21-16 in the House Judiciary Committee on Monday attests to this, as does the maddeningly partisan crusade of the "independent" council.

The House's decision today will probably mark the beginning of a new stage in this saga, one which we hope will be what Starr's investigation was not--fair, decent, efficient and speedy.