THE CHOICE TO RESIGN

Not such a long time ago, we liked Bill Clinton. For the last six years we have stood by his agenda. And it is because we still stand by that agenda--because we still care about things like poverty and child care, affirmative action and gay rights--that today we call for Bill Clinton to resign.

Clinton has demeaned the office of the presidency. He has made those of us who once supported him feel a deep sense of betrayal, and we have had enough. The president should resign because nobody--not members of Congress, and not the citizens who elected him--can or should be expected to take his cue anymore.

By dint of his own choices, the president is no longer capable of doing the job we elected him to do. It is time for him to make one final choice for the good of the nation: the choice to resign. Sept. 15, 1998

STOP THE MADNESS

If there were any doubt that President Clinton would survive this latest crisis, that doubt was buried along with the slew of losing Republican candidates in the midterm elections. While presumably Congress must go through the motions dictated by law, nobody believes that these impeachment hearings will conclude in any serious result. They are a waste of time and, quite frankly, an embarrassment.

It is deeply disappointing that President Clinton's possibly illegal and definitely immoral behavior has been glossed over in favor of partisan bickering, but for better or for worse, he is here to stay.   Nov. 24, 1998

THE WRONG WAY OUT

Clinton's pathetic dalliance with an intern, even if he lied about it, does not warrant impeachment--either in our eyes or in the eyes of the American people who twice elected him to the presidency.

If the House decides to impeach the president on Thursday, a political majority which despises Bill Clinton and wants to remove him from office at any cost will have prevailed, at the expense of the integrity of the Constitution. Congress would use the constitutional procedure of impeachment as a substitute for censure. This amounts to a grave abuse of their power: To impeach Clinton this week would be to belittle the awesome mechanism our founders provided for the removal of our most powerful officer.   Dec. 14, 1998

THE SENATE'S DUTY

For the lame-duck House Republican leadership of the last Congress to have pushed through the articles of impeachment--to have turned a crime so low that any ordinary American would never be prosecuted for it into a "high crime" on par with treason--is an abuse of their constitutional power that voters should not soon forget.

We hope the Senate will vote to end the trial soon after it has begun, whether by a motion to dismiss the charges or, if necessary, a compromise censure resolution. But any compromise must be forged carefully. Any resolution of this mess that lends legitimacy to the articles of impeachment would be a disservice to the nation.   Jan. 6, 1999

JUSTICE SERVED

It wasn't exactly impeachment, but President Clinton has finally been punished for his wrongdoing in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Judge Susan Webber Wright ruled Clinton was in contempt of court for giving "intentionally false" testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. Perhaps more than anything, the ruling was a victory for common sense and the sanctity of the English language. The line between truth and falsehood--so obvious to most of the American people despite the efforts of the president and his legal team--has finally been affirmed by an official voice.   April 15, 1999