The Week

■ As long as we’re looking for compromise, Wes Pruden, editor of the Washington Times, has a suggestion: Remand the Clinton case to juvenile court.

■ Ken Starr brought obstruction-of-justice charges against Julie Steele, the treacherous friend of Kathleen Willey (how come everyone knows about Linda Tripp and not this beaut?). The courts reinstated a tax-fraud case against Webster Hubbell. Finally, word leaked out that Starr might indict President Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice. The first two actions are quite proper: Knowing who got Steele to change her tune (first she backed Willey up, then she filed an affidavit tearing her down) would shine a light on Clinton’s strong-arm tactics. Hubbell got a payoff even grander than the one Monica was supposed to get, and in each case Vernon Jordan helped with damage control. Whether the Constitution allows the indictment of a sitting president, however, is an open question, and any indictment should probably be sealed or delayed until 2001. There remains the larger question of whether any of these matters should be on an independent counsel’s desk to begin with. Starr has done some things well, some badly, but the seemingly infinite time and resources at his disposal have properly stoked fears of prosecutorial excess. Meanwhile Congress, off the hook, did not act until compelled. Charles Fried, Reagan’s solicitor general, argued in his challenge to the independent-counsel statute that the ultimate sanction for crime in the Oval Office must be the “long, deep shadow” of impeachment. It will be time, when this is all over, to restore Congress’s responsibility.

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■ As long as we’re looking for compromise, Wes Pruden, editor of the Washington Times, has a suggestion: Remand the Clinton case to juvenile court.

■ Ken Starr brought obstruction-of-justice charges against Julie Steele, the treacherous friend of Kathleen Willey (how come everyone knows about Linda Tripp and not this beaut?). The courts reinstated a tax-fraud case against Webster Hubbell. Finally, word leaked out that Starr might indict President Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice. The first two actions are quite proper: Knowing who got Steele to change her tune (first she backed Willey up, then she filed an affidavit tearing her down) would shine a light on Clinton’s strong-arm tactics. Hubbell got a payoff even grander than the one Monica was supposed to get, and in each case Vernon Jordan helped with damage control. Whether the Constitution allows the indictment of a sitting president, however, is an open question, and any indictment should probably be sealed or delayed until 2001. There remains the larger question of whether any of these matters should be on an independent counsel’s desk to begin with. Starr has done some things well, some badly, but the seemingly infinite time and resources at his disposal have properly stoked fears of prosecutorial excess. Meanwhile Congress, off the hook, did not act until compelled. Charles Fried, Reagan’s solicitor general, argued in his challenge to the independent-counsel statute that the ultimate sanction for crime in the Oval Office must be the “long, deep shadow” of impeachment. It will be time, when this is all over, to restore Congress’s responsibility.