At Long Last

The Senate's vote last week to acquit the president on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice came as little surprise. Despite desperate last-minute attempts to bolster their case with yet another round of testimony from witnesses, the House impeachment managers throughout the trial were unable to provide a compelling explanation for how the president's actions in the Monica Lewinsky affair met the constitutional standard of "high crimes and misdemeanors." Neither charge could muster a simple majority, a sign of how weak the House's charges were from the beginning.

The vote marked the end of a sad saga that has mesmerized Washington and disgusted the nation for more than a year. A story of two villains--Bill Clinton and Ken Starr--and no heroes, this all-encompassing scandal has claimed many victims: Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston, the Republican Party's approval ratings and Bill Clinton's place in the history books. The already low esteem most Americans hold for government has only fallen more. In December, after House Republicans forced two articles of impeachment through on an almost completely partisan vote, it seemed the nation was in for the nadir of American politics: a protracted, partisan trial in the upper house.

But in the end, the Senate performed admirably. Senators resisted calls to short-circuit the trial required by the Constitution, while preventing the proceedings from dragging on longer than necessary. Though Republican senators did ram through several procedural votes along party lines, the trial as a whole bore little resemblance to the partisan fray in the House.

Many have promoted censure as the appropriate punishment for the president's crimes. But in the wake of the Senate vote, no formal censure resolution appears likely. Legitimate constitutional questions and an overwhelming desire to put the impeachment adventure in the past have doomed the movement for censure, at least for the moment. But Clinton should not interpret this as an exoneration. As Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii noted, each senator has censured Clinton in his or her own way, and there is little a Congressional resolution could do to add to this universal condemnation.

No one can easily undo the damage our president and his accusers have done to the nation--to the quality of our political discourse, to our standing abroad, to our faith in the political system. Rebuilding trust and civility in government will be perhaps the most urgent and difficult task awaiting President Clinton's successor.