Impeachment farce.

• Position: Bill Clinton's possible impeachment and why it should not occur

We are no fans of Bill Clinton. His facile lying has always bothered us, along with his crass politics--abolishing welfare, approving the death penalty, intruding on civil liberties, circumventing campaign-finance laws, lobbying for the arms companies.

But the prospect of an impeachment proceeding gives us the creeps. Rightwing forces have clearly set out to accomplish what they could not accomplish at the polls: the ruination of the Clinton Presidency. Linda Tripp, the Paula Jones lawyers, and Kenneth Starr--all of the aggressive right--sprang a trap on Clinton.

It is time to step back and get some perspective. Prosecuting people for lying about sex in a dismissed civil suit is almost unheard of. Why, then, should Congress consider impeaching a President for this?

That makes no sense at all.

Even if Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, even if he lied under oath in the Paula Jones civil suit, even if he made ambiguous comments that could be construed as suborning perjury or obstructing justice, his actions would not rise to the level of an impeachable offense.

Impeachment is the gravest act Congress can take to rein in a renegade President. It should be used only when the acts of the President are so serious as to render the President unfit for office or so threatening as to jeopardize our democracy.

Lying about sex in a civil suit is not a high crime. It does not threaten our constitutional balance of power. It does not even resemble the illegality and the abuse of power that Richard Nixon engaged in during Watergate.

Nixon personally arranged blackmail payments for E. Howard Hunt in the White House. He also corrupted the Justice Department, the FBI, and the CIA in his criminal cover-up, bringing them all in on the deal.

Now that's obstruction of justice.

He also ran an illegal "Plumbers" operation from the White House to spy on, infiltrate, and undermine his enemies. The Plumbers broke into the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, and Nixon ordered them to steal documents from the Brookings Institution.

Now that's criminal activity.

In case you've forgotten, here's a flavor of Nixon's criminality, an excerpt from a conversation he had on June 30, 1971, with Haldeman in the Oval Office (courtesy of Stanley Kutler's book Abuse of Power):

NIXON: I WANT BROOKINGS. I WANT THEM JUST TO BREAK IN AND TAKE IT OUT. Do YOU UNDERSTAND?

HALDEMAN: YEAH. BUT YOU HAVE TO HAVE SOMEBODY TO DO IT.

NIXON...