LETTERS: DEMOCRATS SHOULD TAKE HIGH ROAD

To the editor:

While Mark Bliss' story, "Panel of professors agrees Clinton won't quit," captured one aspect of the conclusions reached at the university's common hour, I would like to add a further explanation to the reasoning Mark attributed to me. One aspect of President Clinton's personality is that of an extreme people pleaser. Eventually he will resign when Democrats tell him to leave office.

Actually, his statements that "I will never quit" echo remarks by Richard Nixon in 1973 and 1974. What the public is hearing now from the White House and the pro-Clinton media and Congress is a version of Nixon's "let's not wallow in Watergate." While I was one of the first to call for Nixon's impeachment or resignation, I would also be one of the first to admit that the crimes Nixon committed probably did not do more damage to the presidency than the crimes Clinton has committed. To those who say this is only about a sexual affair between consenting adults, I would asset that Ken Starr's grand jury is not finished with Filegate, Whitewater, Clinton's enemies list or the potentially treasonous Clinton exchange of U.S. military technology to the Chinese in return for donations to his 1996 campaign for the presidency.

Also, we have not heard anything about possible crimes committed by Mrs. Clinton, who currently is enjoying her role of victim as the cuckolded wife. So I remind voters that it took two years and two months for Congress to force Nixon out in 1974. Republicans did the right thing then leading the way. Democratic leaders Richard Gephardt (a true straight arrow if there ever was one) and Sen. Tom Daschle (who complained that Clinton also lied to him) should take similar high moral ground at some point during the impeachment process. We'll all be happier with President Al Gore.

J. CHRISTOPHER SCHNELL, Professor of History

Southeast Missouri State University

Cape Girardeau