The House of Representatives' plan to release a large portion of Kenneth Starr's report is correct because it recognises the need for the public to reach an informed decision about President Clinton's conduct in office and his political fate. House Speaker Newt Gingrich's call for decorous, fair debate is also encouraging and an affirmation of Congress' ability to avoid partisan warfare during times of national crisis.
There is, of course, some peril in putting so much potentially salacious material on the public record, but this is a necessary step in dealing with the extraordinary mess created by Clinton's recklessness and his decision to lie repeatedly to his staff, his cabinet, congressional Democrats and the American people.
In our society, information is the antidote for political dysfunction. Friday will be a moment of maximum risk for Clinton, and it is therefore important that no one rush to a conclusion before the report has been fully studied. It is a time, as Gingrich said, to "take a deep breath and allow the facts to lead us".
Facts, of course, are what the Democratic senators were demanding in their meeting with Clinton on Thursday. Clinton has clearly underestimated how seriously other political professionals take being lied to eyeball to eyeball. Sen. Barbara Mikulski said it was important that "the President not engage in any more stonewalling".
Even Mike McCurry, who has so loyally preserved that wall, seemed grumpy Thursday at the misleading work he has done for Clinton. Asked why the senators had referred so specifically to the stonewall, McCurry said: "They probably referred to our inability to provide straightforward answers for eight months now."
Such expressions of disenchantment show what a struggle Clinton faces to establish himself as a leader who can be believed. They also prove the folly of any president ignoring the fact that in Washington everything comes out sooner or later, and stonewalls always collapse on their builders.
To a large degree, Clinton's immediate prospects depend on whether he can hold the Democrats. House Democratic Whip David Bonior and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle have not bolted. But their expressions of loyalty could hardly be more conditional. Their responses underscore the reality that this presidency is on tenterhooks.
There has been little in Clinton's recent conduct to admire. But fairness dictates that he be given a full chance to rebut the allegations in Starr's report. There are, meanwhile, reasons for pride in Congress' initial handling of the Starr report and in the Democratic leadership's attempts to discipline their president toward greater truthfulness and contrition.
There is reason for encouragement, too, in the fact that after months of squabbling and stonewalling, the public will at long last get a chance to judge Starr's account and Clinton's response to it.