Unwise, but not impeachable

To the surprise of no one, the House Judiciary Committee voted -- as it had all day in other maneuvering -- to recommend that the full House begin an impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton.

The committee's Democrats, outnumbered 21 to 16, tried to pass a resolution asking the House to limit its inquiry in scope and time in order to conclude it by Thanksgiving. No sale.

Instead, the committee voted, again 21 to 16, for an essentially open-ended inquiry whose scope and duration no one can predict.

David Schippers, the GOP counsel, enumerated 15 acts in which, he said, the president might have committed a felony and for which he might be impeachable.

Abbe D. Lowell, the Democrats' counsel, stressed that the committee is not an extension of Mr. Starr, whom he accused of usurping the House's constitutional responsibility by presenting 11 alleged impeachable offenses.

So the debate, transported to the House, is unchanged by one iota.

But, we think, there is a huge gap between the unwise and the impeachable. Mr. Clinton's conduct clearly was unwise. But impeachable? No.

What anyone outside the U.S. House thinks is now irrelevant.

-- The Miami Herald