Side Issues Will Just Have To Wait

With impeachment dwarfing everything on the political landscape, this is no time for Congress to invite a shutdown of federal government.

President Clinton clearly would welcome the diversion. He learned once before that a shutdown can be spun to his political advantage. During the 1995 shutdown, Clinton spent his evenings enjoying the services of Monica Lewinsky and his days blasting the Republicans’ efforts to rein in federal spending and bureaucracy.

During the last few weeks, the White House again was threatening to veto Congress’ appropriation bills, due by Friday. The Wilderness Society painted the backdrop for battle by flooding the nation’s cooperative news media with press releases about budget riders friendly to (shudder) logging, dams and motor vehicles. The scheme was: Clinton vetoes provoke a crisis this weekend, as funding for federal operations runs out. Clinton postures as savior of the environment and the treasury, bashing Republicans first for their policy excesses and second for being obsessed with his sex life.

As always, there are two sides to each of the policies that Clinton threatened to veto.

But the very end of the session, in a politicized election year, with impeachment looming over everything else, is not the right time for big policy battles. The Republic will survive if the debate over large tax cuts, for example, is not resolved until next year.

Wisely, Republicans in the last few days began caving in and compromising. For now, Congress ought to minimize the excuses for Clinton to create another crisis. There are a few emergencies to deal with, such as aid to farmers and the International Monetary Fund. Beyond the emergencies, however, other issues can wait.

One thing can’t wait: the impeachment process.

As a result of his own actions, Clinton’s credibility and his capacity to lead have been severely damaged. With grave economic troubles appearing around the world, a crippled American presidency is a crisis indeed.

Congress has to forge ahead, ugly as the task will be, and press the impeachment matter to an orderly conclusion. It is too early to know what that conclusion should be.

But the Constitution, whose safeguards always have worked before, provides the only clear path to a decision. Polls are not a solution. Indeed, an obsession with polling has become a poor substitute for the exercise of conscience, leadership and judgment. Only an impeachment proceeding, which may in fact not end in impeachment, can end this new national nightmare.