A Delayed State of the Union?

WASHINGTON: What if Bill Clinton gave a State of the Union address and nobody showed up? The Senate still hasn't figured out how it wants to handle the Jan. 19 impeachment proceedings – witnesses or no witnesses, seven days or six months – but members seem to agree on one thing: It's time for the defendant to start taking them seriously. "I think it would be unseemly and distracting for the president to be giving a State of the Union address to Congress while he was under trial in the Senate," said Slade Gorton of Washington, who is working on a mini-trial plan with Democrat Joe Lieberman.

But the White House is showing no signs of stopping for a breath – and why should it? Last year's address, delivered in the very same shadow, was a sleight-of-hand triumph that kicked off a year of unsinkable approval ratings. On Monday the President will unveil a $1,000 tax credit to help baby boomers care for their ailing parents – just the sort of thing to make Republicans look petty for wanting to remove him. But when the GOP kicks off the 106th Congress with party confabs this week, moderates like Gorton (and sudden moderates like Trent Lott) will be the only thing standing between Clinton and a long and embarrassing trial.