Impeachment Is Not The Answer Censure Drop Partisan Blood Lust And Rebuke Him.

Congress has a reasonable way out of the impeachment quagmire, if members want one.

By dropping the process now, before it consumes any more time and attention, and censuring President Clinton, the president’s critics would have a result they can’t get through impeachment - a bipartisan denunciation of Clinton’s personal behavior.

If Congress stays the present course, however, the House may well impeach Clinton on one or more of four articles next week, but the Senate almost certainly will not remove him from office. It simply lacks the Republican numbers to sustain a conviction on this deeply partisan issue. Meanwhile, the ordeal could distract the Senate from other important business for months, ultimately producing a historical footnote, making Clinton the second U.S. president to be impeached.

Such a result will affirm little more than the fact there was a joint occupancy in federal government at the end of the 20th century, a Republican majority in Congress and a Democrat in the White House.

But a resolution passed by bipartisan majorities in both houses and signed by Clinton himself would make an undeniable public record that Clinton “has egregiously failed in this obligation, and through his actions has violated the trust of the American people, lessened their esteem for the office of the President and dishonored the office which they have entrusted to him.” So reads a proposed resolution submitted by three House Democrats as an alternative to impeachment. Hardly flattering words coming from fellow party members.

But Clinton, to his shame, has earned the legacy.

Removing him from office over his attempts at deception, arising from a series of shocking but non-criminal failings, raises questions about what greater punishment is reserved for presidents who commit and cover up greater offenses - for instance, willingly putting the nation at risk in exchange for personal gain.

It’s not Clinton who is the victim of a pro-impeachment blood lust. He is a victim of his own moral collapse. But an obsession with political gains and losses does victimize the American people. It is their interest that is being neglected. It is their interest that an honorable and expeditious solution, such as a frank resolution of censure, would serve.