Part of this is surely election strategy: With GOP gains likely in both the House and Senate, why upset the cart at this late stage? But there's one long-term election strategy they must consider: census sampling. As many as two dozen Republican seats in the House are put in doubt by this Democratic scheme to count phantom voters through statistical legerdemain. Approving only a six-month appropriation for the Census Bureau (rather than a full year) is an entirely legitimate enterprise given that the administration's plan to sample for purposes of Congressional apportionment has been ruled illegal by two federal courts and is currently under Supreme Court review.

The GOP position on this is totally defensible, and Clinton would have a tough time explaining a veto to the public. If he insists on trying, Republicans probably should let him.

Join the Club
With the House vote on Thursday for an impeachment inquiry, President Clinton becomes the third member of a club that includes Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon. Only these three chief executives have been subject to such an extraordinary constitutional step.

So where does that leave the legacy-conscious Clinton? In a book by Nathan Miller published earlier this year, Star-Spangled Men: America's Ten Worst Presidents, Johnson and Nixon are rated respectively as the fourth-worst and the very worst Presidents in American history.

Admittedly, it's a partisan liberal book. But there's plenty of room at the bottom--and Clinton is headed there fast.

Idiocy of the Week
And from a former NR contributing editor, no less: "A year or so from now, it will be difficult to find a single person who admits ever having believed that a global free market is a sensible way of running the world economy" (John Gray, "Not for the First Time, World Sours on Free Markets," The Nation, Oct. 19).