Monitor: American comment after the end of the trial of President Clinton

All the News of the World

THERE ARE two things to celebrate here. One is the self-destruction of the right wing and its willingness to take the entire Republican Party down with it. The other is something that would have seemed unthinkable a year ago when the Monica Lewinsky story broke: the relative sophistication of the public's insistence that private sexual behavior is not a gauge of how well an elected official does his job.

Salon Magazine (Internet)

AMERICA WAS established as a country of principle. Today's politicians have been taught by our educators that nothing is absolute, that there are no objective truths, that human reason is incapable of knowing anything with certainty, that everything from the nature of reality to the meanings of "sex" and "is" is whatever anyone wants it to be. The very idea of an unyielding principle is incomprehensible to the moderns. If we are to have a modern president we can admire, it is this idea which our politicians must rediscover.

Houston Chronicle

LET'S HOPE the president realizes that the independent counsel law must be used with restraint and limited to abuses of power and authority. The perceived unfairness of the Republican attacks played an important role in his acquittal. If he engages in a vendetta against Republicans that voters perceive as unfair, public opinion could turn on him. The nation needs no more of the partisan divisiveness that has characterized the last six years. Clinton and the Congress need to find some common ground and work together on the business of the people rather than continuing the partisan warfare.

Daily Southtown

THE PUBLIC does indeed want Washington to move ahead with the nation's business. Mr Clinton should be sorry that his actions distracted the nation from its goals. President Clinton will be held accountable for his lies and evasions by history. If he seeks vindication through political revenge, he will be judged all the more harshly as will his immediate political successors by the American people.

Detroit News