Order In The Court

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The problem for the White House is that the interests of the President and those of his party are not quite the same. "From the Democratic Party perspective, I don't see any downside to having a long trial, " says a White House official. The Democrats would prefer not to see Clinton thrown out of office. But they cannot have failed to notice that the bloodbath in the House helped their party and hurt the Republicans. In fact, the only Democrat to lose from what happened in the House was Clinton.

The political hands in the White House have understood from the beginning that postponing things is how the Senate operates. Now the White House will have to adopt a new operating style tailored for the more collegial body. "The problem is, our best defense has always been partisanship, and you can't do that in the Senate," says a White House official. "You've got to be more flexible and more willing to bend." The danger here is that the longer things go on, the more uncertain the outlook is for Clinton, the bigger the chance for surprises. And the only kind of surprises you get in these circumstances are bad ones.

So White House strategists huddled on Saturday, drafting scripts, dividing tasks among the lawyers, debating whether preparing for witnesses would make the prosecutors more likely to call them. Even those with the most courtroom experience will never be fully ready for a trial unlike any ever held. It is as much a political as a legal proceeding; the jury is also the judge; justice, which is supposed to be blind, has a party affiliation; prosecutors will be held to no specified standard of proof; and the verdict will under no circumstances be unanimous.

The President, through it all, remained detached, celebrating chief of staff John Podesta's 50th birthday Friday night by performing an X-Files skit with Hillary and showing a video of the actual cast singing "Happy Birthday, Skippy." Down Pennsylvania Avenue, the Senators too were in the mood to party. Perhaps because bliss may be fleeting, they got drunk on consensus. After the unanimous vote, Kennedy and his wife Victoria ran into Lott in a private room just off the Senate chamber. Lott gave her a big kiss: "How about some crawfish etouffe?" Lott joked when the discussion turned to favorite foods. Kennedy tried on his best Mississippi accent: "I want me a po'boy." The suggestion led to billows of laughter. "This is going to make the health-care bill of rights a piece of cake," said Kennedy.

"Piece of cake," said Lott. "Let's go do it now."

"Yes, and minimum wage," said Kennedy.

They broke up in a concert of chuckles. It may be the last good laugh anyone has for a long time.