The Week

■ The New York Times recently reported that President Clinton is much more liberal than his image suggests. Which, we guess, makes him the political equivalent of the Times.

■ NR’s editorial last issue on George Stephanopoulos’s possible violation of the Ethics in Government Act, along with a mention of the problem in The New Republic, has brought the accusations more visibility. The law prohibits senior congressional staff from dealing with their former employers for one year after their departure. Mr. Stephanopoulos was a senior aide to Representative Gephardt in 1991 and spent 1992 with the Clinton campaign, on at least one occasion acting as liaison with congressional Democratic leaders. The first response of Mr. Stephanopoulos’s defenders was that, at his salary and grade level, he was not covered by the Act. More recently, on the Brinkley show, he shifted ground, conceding he may have been covered but denying he was lobbying. We hope others will look into this—including the Justice Department—and establish the truth. Meanwhile, we urge the President: Pardon Stephanopoulos now.

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■ The New York Times recently reported that President Clinton is much more liberal than his image suggests. Which, we guess, makes him the political equivalent of the Times.

■ NR’s editorial last issue on George Stephanopoulos’s possible violation of the Ethics in Government Act, along with a mention of the problem in The New Republic, has brought the accusations more visibility. The law prohibits senior congressional staff from dealing with their former employers for one year after their departure. Mr. Stephanopoulos was a senior aide to Representative Gephardt in 1991 and spent 1992 with the Clinton campaign, on at least one occasion acting as liaison with congressional Democratic leaders. The first response of Mr. Stephanopoulos’s defenders was that, at his salary and grade level, he was not covered by the Act. More recently, on the Brinkley show, he shifted ground, conceding he may have been covered but denying he was lobbying. We hope others will look into this—including the Justice Department—and establish the truth. Meanwhile, we urge the President: Pardon Stephanopoulos now.