The Cost Of It All

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And maybe soon we won't be. It is possible, even likely, that Clinton will skate through here. There is no hunger on Capitol Hill to go through impeachment. Senior Republicans have insisted for several weeks now that only a clear-cut case of obstruction of justice would compel them to start an impeachment inquiry. "We're not going to let the Republican Party go down in flames over a sex charge," said an aide to Senator Orrin Hatch, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee.

Some people believe that if Starr lacks clear evidence of obstruction, the decent thing for him to do is stop and file a report; perhaps the decent thing for Clinton to do is tell the truth and then spend a month in a monastery. But decency is a concept that gets more traction in a culture in which shame matters, like Japan, where the CEOs resign when an airplane crashes. America has always been too big, too fractious for shame to work very well--and there are too many places to start over.

Optimists and reformers already foresee laws that will undo the Supreme Court's Paula Jones decision and protect sitting Presidents from lawsuits; revisions of the independent-counsel law to preserve its value but limit its potential for abuse; even laws that would affirm a privilege for Secret Service agents and government lawyers. Clinton's successors, if they are men or women of unimpeachable character and conduct, can go a long way to set things right. Reagan was the latest President to test the resilience of the office: following the disgrace of Nixon and the disappointments of Ford and Carter, books about the presidency dismissed the job as an empty chair. Reagan showed what conviction and charisma can do. Even those who hated his policies acknowledged his mastery of the magic. Someone else will surely come along to restore the mystique; but it will take more than charm and skill in our future Presidents to undo the damage.

--Reported by Jay Branegan, Margaret Carlson, J.F.O. McAllister and Michael Weisskopf/Washington and Andrea Sachs/New York