IMPEACHMENT PROCESS IMPORTANT FOR AMERICA.

Byline: A.M. Rosenthal

WE know three things for certain, and standing in the muck of Bill Clinton's character amid the remains of his presidency, it helps cleanse us to think about them.

We know that undertaking the impeachment process, wherever it leads, was what the Constitution provided for a president who had so betrayed the people as to lie to their faces and lie under oath, and even as he cringes and whines, so fears the consequences of his behavior that he despoils the meaning of contrition by refusing to admit what he did.

And we know that the Clinton story is not the essence of America, nor close to it. It is one nasty episode in U.S. history, which at least we confronted not sometime in the future when it was too late, but while he and we could confront each other.

And we know, with gratitude to those who created America's particular system of government, that every national Election Day we will get a chance to select a leader. On such a day, perhaps the next, we will again choose a person whom voters can regard with respect while he serves and history will remember with approval afterward.

Those are kernel American truths, whether Clinton is allowed to serve out his second term or not. But there is no constitutional reason for Americans to carry for two more years this man who made himself the great American moral albatross.

``I am not a crook,'' cried Richard Nixon. ``I am not Richard Nixon,'' cries Clinton through his lawyers. ``We are not fools,'' is what Americans should reply through Congress.

Throughout the impeachment hearings, the Clinton defense army kept informing us that presidential lying under oath was not as bad as Watergate. That line of nonreasoning cements Nixon's achievements in presidential depravity as the minimum standard for impeachment - which would have been a big surprise to him and his fellow conspirators.

Clinton did not lie simply to cover up his affair with Monica Lewinsky. He lied and lied, under oath and directly to the people, and lied to aides who became a chain letter of lies, to build a wall of lies around the White House. The wall was built purposely to save his job if Congress decided to travel the impeachment road.

For a president, there are phrases for that, which follow Nixon beyond the grave. They are called obstruction of justice and abuse of power.

In the Clinton case, the White House line that he should not be impeached because most people lie to cover up sexual infidelity is sour comedy. How many people swear they cannot remember if they were ever alone with their lover? Could the president please provide a list of people he thinks might have been in the room with him and Lewinsky while they were making love?

Anyway, he is not most people, but legally a person unique in the land, in privileges and power. Weaving a skein of lies to cover up his conduct while president is not one of these privileges.

Surely, surely, it was not the intent of the writers of the Constitution or of the former colonies that adopted it that the president should go unpunished for acts that would land any officer under him in jail - like adultery with a subordinate.

Clinton has large adulterous company in America, but he is the only one in the country for whom ``Hail to the Cheat'' is played.

We are ankle-deep in Clinton's own character-gook. We are trapped in his own sick decision to risk the presidency for back-office sex with a subordinate.

Even people on his payroll say what he did was reprehensible and defiling to the presidency. But now these folk say the House of Representatives should not impeach him and send him to the Senate for trial.

Clinton made his choice. The obligation of the House is to make its choice - impeach. The Senate would then make its own choice - convict or not.

The other option - House censure without impeachment - is evasive and possibly illegal. It can be wiped from the records by any Democratic Congress, as the censure of Andrew Jackson was torn from the books by his party.

Someday, because America gives us blessed chances to scrub ourselves, the country will feel clean again. Following the constitutional process laid down to deal with the Bill Clintons will make us fresher faster.