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Partisan politics doesnąt surprise, just disappoint

Congressional Democrats' largely partisan opposition to the impeachment inquiry of President Clinton's wrongdoing is not surprising, but it nonetheless is disappointing.

It is the natural instinct of Democrats to try to protect a Democratic president, just as Republicans attempted to protect Richard Nixon until the very end. Even so, the logic of the Democrats' position bears examination.

House Democratic leaders offered, as an alternative to an open-ended inquiry, an impeachment resolution that would have limited both the scope and schedule of the Judiciary Committee's investigation. This might be a plausible approach in some utopia, but not after nearly a year of stonewalling on the Lewinsky matter and after seeing the Clinton administration and its allies skillfully run down the clock on Sen. Fred Thompson's campaign fund-raising investigation.

Limiting the impeachment inquiry to a certain time would be a formula to invite delaying tactics. As for limiting the scope, Democrats' logic amounts to this: ''Let's not look over there because we might find more felonies.'' Nothing could be more contrary to the rule of law, or more reckless. It would be as if a policeman did not bother to check for outstanding warrants against a bank robbery suspect just taken into custody.

As it happens, the independent counsel still is investigating other criminal matters that could involve the president. The current impeachment inquiry allows new evidence to be presented to Congress regarding those matters without opening a separate House inquiry.

Could the Republican majority, which was joined by 31 Democrats, abuse its investigative power? Of course, but the Republicans would do so at their own political peril. Americans are so sickened by the president's actions that they don't want to have much to do with the dirty business of impeachment anyway, and voters likely would deal severely with those who seek short-term political advantage from this crisis.