Meanwhile state and federal death penalty laws keep adding up, along with hypercharged rhetoric. Mr. Ashcroft has declared he would not apply an anti-abortion standard to judicial appointments and would enforce relevant laws though they contradict his outspoken conservatism. Only the death penalty now seems to be another test, at the same time it demands scrupulousness. History will remember him foremost as the second U.S. president to be impeached. He came into office already sullied with a reputation as a skirt-chaser and provoked a scandal.
Nothing can change that.
He presided over this nation's longest period of prosperity. Whether he caused it will be argued, but it can be safely said that his administration did nothing to derail it. In a brief farewell address, President Clinton characteristically patted himself on the back and made some defiant warnings about changing the course he set. At age 55 and in good health, Mr. Clinton is unlikely to drop out of the political scene. His continued presence in Washington, along with his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, will be hard to ignore.