Political excesses

There is a stark contrast between the Bill Clinton of the Starr investigation and the Bill Clinton world leaders see. On Monday, even as ...

There is a stark contrast between the Bill Clinton of the Starr investigation and the Bill Clinton world leaders see. On Monday, even as his videotaped testimony before a grand jury rolled out across the globe, the US president received a standing ovation from the assembled heads of government at the UN General Assembly. The applause was not an act of solidarity with a beleaguered fellow politician or any kind of judgment on his personal conduct.

It was a spontaneous morale-boosting, get-on-with-the-job message arising out of considerable disquiet over the discrediting and weakening of the office of the American presidency. At a time of multiple crises it is obvious no one wants the leadership of the world8217;s sole superpower to be so crippled by moral MaCarthyism or other kinds of domestic political excesses as to be unable to carry out its responsibilities abroad. But the anxieties of world leaders have not made much impression so far on the American political establishment nor are they likely to in theforeseeable future.

From the independent prosecutor, Kenneth Starr8217;s obsession with sexual misdemeanorus to the media feeding frenzy and, above all, November elections to the US Congress, everything conspires to keep the focus on the Lewinsky affair. There is no quick end in sight to more humiliation of the US president. Resignation, even if Clinton were so inclined, would not repair the damage to the presidency and would probably be destabilising for the political system. The impeachment process through the present Congress and the one elected in November would be protracted and absorb more of the energies of the establishment. But any kind of answer has to come primarily from the US Congress which must decide without delay whether to impeach or censure the president.

It is not a constitutional responsibility this end-of-term Congress is eager to assume without first testing public opinion on each new wave of graphic sexual disclosures. If the Republican majority has its way there will be moreexplicitness in the media before the Congress makes up its mind one way or another. No one should be surprised if at the end of this sorry tale there are no electable candidates at the next presidential election.

While America plays out its domestic soap-opera, key pillars of the Pax Americana are being shaken severely in the world outside. Clinton continued former president Bush8217;s crusade for a world order based on democracy, non-proliferation and the free market. But people and events have been overturning many of those certainties. From East Asia and Japan to Russia and Brazil, free market ideas are under assault. The gurus of the free movement of capital across national frontiers are yielding place to revisionists and advocates of capital controls.

Washington8217;s carefully constructed non-proliferation regime has been coming apart. Americans may like to blame the shortcomings of foreigners for these setbacks to the good life. But they can only blame their own leaders8217; lack of restraint and common sensefor the sad image American-style democracy is acquiring abroad just now.