IT'S TOO LATE TO APOLOGIZE; PRESIDENT'S WORDS OF CONTRITION RING FALSE AS HIS DISREGARD FOR HIS PARTY AND AMERICAN PEOPLE BETRAYS HIM.

Byline: Matthew N. Klink

EARLY this summer, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, gave President Clinton some sound advice. He urged him to apologize to the American people for his actions. After months of stalling, on Aug. 17, Clinton spurned Hatch's advice, followed his attorneys' suggestions and didn't apologize. Instead, he attacked.

The president's failed attempt at contrition, combined with his hostile words toward Kenneth Starr, demonstrate Clinton's nonstop effort to politically position himself while at the same time blaming others for his shortcomings.

Lately, he's been passing out apologies to fellow Democrats, Cabinet members and anyone else who would listen. But I don't want an apology. Clinton doesn't owe us another attempt at contrition.

For his seven months of stonewalling, the president owes the American people a full and complete refund for the wasted legal fees stemming from an outright lie, his unprecedented delay and his character-defining cover-up.

He willfully squandered taxpayer money and left the American people with a partial president, one who is so focused on his personal problems that he is virtually incapable of moving a domestic or foreign policy agenda forward. Apologies, especially those that are not sincere, mean nothing, and any attempt now by the president to apologize should be viewed with the highest degree of suspicion.

Clinton isn't sorry for his inappropriate behavior toward a young, awe-struck intern. About the only thing he is sorry for is that he got caught. If the president were sorry, he would have come forward and apologized to the American people seven months ago, instead of lying and putting the country through this gut-wrenching ordeal.

Instead, Clinton did what he has done his entire political career. He has gone to great lengths to obscure the truth by doing what he alleges may be legally right but is unquestionably wrong morally and ethically. This reason and this reason alone is why Bill Clinton will never be known as a great American leader. He is simply incapable of doing the right thing when people are not looking.

The president feebly accepted responsibility for his actions, which if done by any Cabinet member would result in immediate termination and public crucifixion. But again, this is the Clinton double standard. He says all the right things, but his actions betray him.

To make matters worse, Clinton uses people with total disregard for their reputations. He allowed his female Cabinet members to proclaim his virtue in front of the White House press corps when he knew he had fooled around with a 20-something intern. And, with total disregard to his political party, he allowed its leadership to defend his honor when he knew that what those top Democrats were saying was a lie.

What is amusing is watching hard-core Democrats abandon the president like rats fleeing a sinking ship. This mass exodus began with Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Clinton's successor at the Democratic Leadership Council, chastising the president on the Senate floor. His heartfelt, deeply passionate speech fundamentally altered the current political environment and made verbal attacks against the president's character Washington's soup du jour.

Since Lieberman's speech, a number of senators, coincidentally those facing difficult re-election campaigns, have criticized Clinton. Even ultraliberal loyalist Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., herself a member of Clinton's extended family, questioned the president's troubling and disgusting actions.

What really worries Democratic House and Senate leaders is that the party's voting base, which historically has had turnout problems if a compelling reason to vote does not exist, will be so turned off by Clinton's actions that Democratic voters will simply stay home on Election Day.

A low Democratic turnout would cost the party a number of swing seats in the House, could give Republicans a filibuster-proof majority of 60 in the Senate and could allow the GOP to capture or hold more governorships - the most important of which is California.

Even without the Clinton-Lewinsky affair and other presidential misdeeds, Democrats were facing a difficult predicament. Off-year, second-term elections are generally bad for the party holding the presidency, meaning that under normal circumstances, Democrats would be expected to lose seats in the House and Senate in November. In the 1986 election, the last congressional election in Ronald Reagan's second term, Republicans lost seats in the House and Democrats regained control of the Senate.

Scandals, such as Clinton's extramarital affair and his lying about it to the nation, only magnify losses for the party in power. Just ask the Republicans what happened in the House after the 1974 elections.

The challenge that Democrats face is, how do they distance themselves from Clinton on matters of character and moral authority, while at the same time embracing what remains of his public policy agenda? The question, less than 60 days before Election Day, is undoubtedly causing many sleepless nights in Washington, D.C., as Democratic political strategists attempt to find a solution to this problem.

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PHOTO A contrite President Clinton seeks Americans' forgiveness and blames himself for letting the country down during a speech Wednesday in Florida.

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press