Clinton's day of reckoning: now, not later.

So when does it end? Will we spend the next twenty-two months talking about President Bill Clinton's sex life? True, it's not just about sex. It's about character and, perhaps, obstruction of justice, lying, and sexual harassment.

Yes, Kathleen Willey made a powerful presentation against the president. She appeared credible enough that it was hard for Anita Hill's defenders not to come forward on Willey's behalf. Some of them - notably Hill herself and Patricia Ireland of the National Organization for Women - did.

And it's difficult not to be upset with the president. Since he knew that his behavior with women was destined to be an issue, why didn't he go out of his way to avoid situations that might even appear to be compromising? If you believe a vast right-wing conspiracy is out to get you, you watch your back, and you behave.

Still, there is a core problem with this story, and it's one of the reasons why the public still has not turned on Clinton. In this controversy, it's possible to believe that everyone is right.

You can be fairly certain that the president did things he shouldn't have, and also know that some of his enemies will do anything to bring him down, no matter what he did. You can believe that Ken Starr has grounds for suspecting a large Clinton cover-up, ranging from Webb Hubbell to Monica Lewinsky, and also surmise that Starr, smarting from attacks on himself and his office, will do whatever it takes to get the president.

You can believe there are women with legitimate complaints against the president, and also doubt some things his accusers have said. You can believe the Clinton camp will trash whomever they have to for the sake of survival, and that Clinton shaves the truth when he has to, and still wonder: Are all these charges really true?

You can also go on like this forever, but to what end? The issue before the country is whether we want to spend the rest of the Clinton term parsing his morality and analyzing the motives of his critics.

Starr could keep investigating, trying to turn up new women and hoping to turn old witnesses. Clinton can figure out a strategy to survive nearly anything. All this is more entertaining than, say, campaign reform, Iraq, Social Security, Medicare, education, the Asian crisis, and child care.

It's time to say enough. It's time to decide: Do we want to let the president govern, or do we want him to leave?

We already know this case will be decided in Congress. So let's move it to Congress fast. Starr should wind down his inquiry now and send his report to the House. If he has outstanding prosecutions, let him go ahead while Congress ponders.

The only grounds for further delay would be the hope that smoking-gun evidence will turn up eventually to settle this case for us. But there's little reason to suspect that staying at this for another several months will produce sudden clarity. We need to make a democratic decision, as we did on Clarence Thomas and Bob Packwood.

Congress should deal with Starr's findings fairly but expeditiously using the House Judiciary Committee headed by Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), a man respected by members of both parties.

Once the issue moves to Congress and the Paula Jones case is decided, Clinton will have no more excuses to prevent him from speaking out. And let Congress make its decision before November's elections, so the voters can render a verdict on Congress's verdict. Many legislators in both parties would prefer delay. But the voters don't seem to want that, and postponing the day of reckoning also carries a political price.

Eight years ago, political scientists Benjamin Ginsberg and Martin Shefter wrote a prescient book, Politics by Other Means, in which they argued that the power of the people to decide important matters through elections had been supplanted by a new kind of politics. It is built around press disclosures, judicial proceedings, and investigations. They couldn't have imagined how far this move away from deliberative democratic politics would go. It's time to shut down the sideshow, decide Clinton's fate and, yes, restore power to the people.