The Replaceable President

The suspense is finally over. Michael Jordan has retired, probably for good this time. The greatest basketball player ever, and allegedly the one irreplaceable star in the National Basketball Association, has left the game. But no one is irreplaceable. News of Jordan's retirement broke the same day that baseballs hit by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were auctioned off for far more than balls hit by all-time home run king Hank Aaron and former single season home-run leaders Roger Maris and Babe Ruth. This is a vast and rich nation full of talented people in all fields who keep turning up as the years go by. After the tears in Chicago have dried, we will remember that no one is ever irreplaceable, not even Air Jordan.

The suspense is also over in Washington, where the trial of the president began yesterday. There is no suspense surrounding the trial, whether or not witnesses are called, since everyone assumes that 67 senators will not vote to convict Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. It's a slam dunk for the White House, but in a way this game will have three winners: the president, who will hold onto his office; the Democratic Party, which has stayed or, recently, has become doggedly loyal to him: and the Republicans, who will claim that they were both high-minded in their pursuit of justice and sensible enough to avoid convicting him.

All three winners might agree on the wording of a censure resolution, but words will have no effect on a shameless president. The only losers in this outcome will be the American people.

Even those few liberal Democrats like me who have argued that the president should resign or else be removed from office will be relieved when this is all over. We are exhausted from arguing with our friends and embarrassed to be associated with the likes of Tom DeLay and Bob Barr, whose hatred of the president changed the focus of this story from the president's lying to the Republicans' own bitter partisanship. It's been a very long year.

Yet when the senators throw up their hands over whether the president's testimony was a charge or a block and conclude, finally, "no harm, no foul," some of us will still believe that Clinton's deliberate lying, both under oath and to the people, has destroyed the essential bond between the president and the people. His behavior showed him to be weak and arrogant when voters had hoped for someone who would be strong and honest. An electorate that condones deceit deserves the contempt that such deceit implies. Even liberals who rightly believe that there are only a few moral absolutes in life should agree that while we can all tolerate some fudging and shading, we can't condone a proven lie.

There's no good reason why Clinton ought to remain in office. Some who do not see the tragic results of condoning a presidential liar say they are being loyal to the commitment they made twice in the polling booth. But removing President Clinton and promoting Al Gore '69 would not be overturning two elections; voters did elect Gore to the second-highest office in the land, after all. He's there expressly in case his boss is incapable--or unworthy--of serving.

Some are worried that the economy will falter if Clinton is removed, but that is giving the president too much credit for the decisions of Alan Greenspan. Finally, the most justified concern: some are afraid that the president's conviction would strengthen the hold of conservative Republicans over Congress. But the Democrats would be in a stronger position to keep the right wing in check if we had an honest leader in the Oval Office.

I'm not delusional; I think the president will win in the Senate, the Comeback Kid running on the adrenaline of one final campaign and overcoming flawed and divided opposition. It will be a great individual victory for him (perhaps his greatest--who would have thought a year ago that he would escape from this mess?), but it will be a massive civic loss.

Call me a dreamer, but here's what I'd like to see happen. Right now, just after the trial he believes he can win has begun, would be the time for Clinton to go out on top, to resign and earn the gratitude, if not the affection, of a morally restored society. Gore, like Scottie Pippen but with a weaker jump shot, is a more than able successor. Michael Jordan has retired, and the worst he ever did was palm the ball on occasion. Couldn't this president, guilty of more than just a few lane violations, follow suit? For the nation, nothing would so become Clinton's public life as the leaving of it.

Susannah B. Tobin '00 is a classics concentrator in Lowell House.