President Bill Clinton has lied his way out of the most powerful office in the world. To endure such a dishonest man as our national leader is more shame and humiliation than America can tolerate. He needs our prayers. He deserves our forgiveness if he sincerely repents. He needs professional help. But he cannot remain in the White House. If he lacks the basic decency, honor and sense of duty to resign, he should be impeached.
To those who have followed Mr. Clinton with increasingly alarmed scrutiny, as we have, the Starr report on Friday confirmed our worst fears that America elected an immoral liar. Twice.
To those who have desperately clung to the fig-leaf of denial, the Starr report is like some awful, grainy, black-and-white photos, devastating pictures of an unfaithful spouse caught in the act. We can't stand to look, but we can't tear our eyes away.
The fragile marriage between America and this charming cheater can never be the same. We need to dump him like last week's trash. We didn't want to know that evidence on a White House intern's dress is "characteristic of one out of 7.87 trillion Caucasians" -- and that the "one" is our president.
We didn't want to know the graphic and explicit details of sexual encounters between 20-something "sweetie," and over-50 "handsome."
We never wanted to hear a sad young woman who was used like a disposable tissue saying, "I never expected to fall in love with the president, but I was surprised that I did."
Parts of the Starr report are saturated with sex. Typically, the White House tried to shift the blame for that to Independent Counsel Ken Starr. But Mr. Starr replies:
"Many of the details reveal highly personal information; many are sexually explicit. This is unfortunate, but it is essential. The President's defense to many of the allegations is based on a close parsing of the definitions that were used to describe his conduct. We have, after careful review, identified no manner of providing the information that reveals the falsity of the President's statements other than to describe his conduct with precision." Mr. Starr had no choice, and neither do we: We have to face it because Bill Clinton has shoved it under our noses in our White House.
And it gets worse. Serial lying. Obstruction. A pattern of corruption. Efforts by Clinton pal Vernon Jordan to find a job for Ms. Lewinsky, as soon as she agreed to lie under oath to protect the president, are a mirror image of favors Mr. Jordan arranged for Clinton crony Webster Hubbell -- as soon as he reneged on a promise to cooperate with Mr. Starr.
The digging continues in Travelgate, Filegate, Whitewater and other White House sinkholes. Mr. Starr issued the Lewinsky findings because he was compelled to do so by law, as soon as he found "substantial and credible information . . . that may constitute grounds for an impeachment."
He found plenty, including numerous examples of perjury -- in the Paula Jones sexual harassment civil case against the president and, incredibly, later in grand jury testimony.
To those who glibly say "It's only lying about sex," Mr. Starr replies:
"Perjury and attempts to obstruct the gathering of evidence can never be an acceptable response to a court order. . . . The President has the constitutional duty to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed."'
Mr. Starr is not finished. But Mr. Clinton is.
We can never look at him with respect or confidence again. His finger-wagging lie last January lives in infamy. He has recklessly sacrificed the things no president can function without: credibility, moral authority and the trust of the nation. Bill Clinton is a walking joke, a raunchy parody of a president.
Watergate is no benchmark for impeaching a president, but comparisons are inevitable. And it boils down to this: President Nixon perverted the political system; President Clinton has perverted the presidency. Both lied and used the massive power of the White House to cover it up. Their own deceit held the seeds of their destruction. America didn't stand for a lying president then, and it's no time to start now.
President Clinton must go.
