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It was a much-needed moment of restraint in a scandal that has been all about excess. By Friday the Democrats had heard, for the first time since Starr's report was released, conciliatory talk from a key member of the Gingrich team. Representative John Linder of Georgia, head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told an audience in Washington that "if all Starr has is what we've seen, I don't think the public is ready for [impeachment]." But the glimmer faded when Linder went on to echo Gingrich's call for an open-ended impeachment inquiry. "There is no shortage of scandals," he said. "In some ways, the Starr report has gotten in the way of the investigations that we need to be doing."
Of course, Democratic visions of a preemptive "censure-plus" deal were always delusional, as were Republican dreams of an abrupt resignation. Clinton did try to put one aspect of the scandal behind him last week by moving to settle the Paula Jones suit before an appeals court revives it. Jones demanded $1 million (but no apology), Clinton offered $500,000, and the two sides are still talking, with a resolution possible sometime this week. But impeachment moves still seem unavoidable: the Republican-controlled Judiciary committee is expected to vote in favor of launching such an inquiry by next week, and the full House would then prepare to start hearings sometime after the November elections. In the bloodless trench warfare over the Clinton presidency, it seems to matter little that Americans want a swift outcome. But it is fair to ask: What if they held a war and nobody showed up?
--With reporting by Jay Branegan, John F. Dickerson, Mark Thompson, Karen Tumulty and Michael Weisskopf/Washington