Monitor

All the News of the World American opinion on Clinton's worsening crisis

WITH FRIENDS like these, who needs Republicans? President Clinton returns to Washington to find Democrats in a distinctly uglier mood than when he left. Ever since the respected centrist Senator Joe Lieberman gave the signal from the Senate floor with a searing moral indictment, lawmakers on the left have been preparing to jump the Clinton ship. He made it possible for Democrats to bolt if the Starr report is as bad as people expect. In this snapshot moment, it certainly looks bleak for him. Of course, given the Comeback Kid's record of escaping from tight spots at the last minute, all bets are off.

Time Daily

LIEBERMAN'S DENUNCIATION of Clinton on the floor of the Senate must not be taken as simply the first desertion of the president by a stalwart supporter in his party. Lieberman speaks for the nation. The nation too has made up its mind that it must not leave the impression that what the president did was acceptable, and that it must be followed with some measure of public rebuke and accountability.

Boston Herald

WE WHO are content to let others steer the ship of state needed to hear Lieberman's message as much as did Clinton. We put our trust in him, whether by choice or by the count of the ballot, and he owes us. And, judging by the number of folks who are still bent on excusing his failings as no better than ought to be expected from a mere mortal, the values of which he is steward, our values, are in sore need of an overhaul.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette

APPARENTLY, THE president still doesn't understand the scale of his transgressions - that he's not just offended his family but shamed his office and embarrassed his nation. Increasingly, though, others do. Talk of an unprecedented censure by the Senate has grown steadily since the president's admission. Legal pedantry may work when you are talking to a jury. And soulful dissembling may work when you are preaching to a choir. But like a cheap set of curtains, Clinton's rhetorical drapes are increasingly transparent. As the mutterings in Congress suggest, they are increasingly tattered, too.

USA Today