A Sorry Performance
Why do all the pundits and pols want the President to say he's sorry? News flash: he isn't sorry. He certainly isn't contrite. How much value is there to having him pretend otherwise?

Indictment: A Middle Ground
Whether President Clinton can be criminally prosecuted before impeachment and removal from office is a debatable question as a matter of law. (Dan Troy succinctly reviews the arguments and answers the question with a qualified yes in "The Indictment Option," NR, April 6.) Some have concluded that Kenneth Starr therefore cannot indict the President. But Barbara Olson, a founder of the Independent Women's Forum and legal commentator, argues that this doesn't follow. Starr could forward any indictment to the Congress as part of his report rather than to a court-and she argues that he should.

The advantages of this course would be threefold. It would sidestep the constitutional issue of trial and punishment. It would also make it harder for the White House to make the report part of its Starr-v.-Clinton narrative: the indictment would be the grand jury's handiwork. And an indictment would save taxpayers from having to pick up Clinton's legal fees, as the independent-counsel statute would otherwise require.

If the grand jury voted for an indictment, indeed, Starr would have an obligation to include that fact in any report to Congress as evidence that the President has committed impeachable offenses. (If the grand jury votes against one, Congress and the public should know that too.) Perhaps Sen. John Ashcroft's (R., Mo.) upcoming hearings on impeachment could shed more light on this possibility.

Defending the Indefensible
Decent people should be quitting the Clinton administration, not joining it. Despite this, White House sources are launching trial balloons in the media about finding a Republican "elder statesman" figure to defend the President. One name frequently mentioned is former N.H. Sen. Warren Rudman. Such a ploy won't work with the public--most Americans don't know or care who Rudman is--but it may help the Liar-in-Chief's standing with mushy-headed Senators who may eventually hear an impeachment trial. Our hope is that Rudman now will come forward and urge the President to resign. Short of that, he should at least make it clear that he won't let the White House exploit him like, well, a White House intern. Unless, of course, the stories are true.