He Can’t Run, Can’t Hide--So Go to Court : Clinton won’t get the public’s attention as president until the Paula Jones story stops distracting the public.

Originally, this was going to be a column about the expansion of NATO to include the former Soviet republics. But lucky for you--and unlucky for Bill Clinton--something better got in the way.

Minutes before he took the stage in Paris on Tuesday to put his signature to a historic agreement of cooperation between Russia and NATO, the president was socked by a unanimous Supreme Court decision rejecting his request for exemption from the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones. Even Clinton’s own appointees, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, dismissed his argument that dealing with the lawsuit would distract him from his presidential duties.

The White House had orchestrated a series of events over several days to showcase their boss on the global stage. But the enduring memories of Clinton this week will not be as world leader but rather as common skirt-chaser. Anxious to seal a place in history alongside Jefferson and Roosevelt, Clinton instead finds himself leading off late-night talk shows alongside Frank Gifford and Marv Albert.

Most Americans made up their minds about Clinton’s character a long time ago, and the Jones ruling is unlikely to change them. Anyone who has stood by Clinton through allegations of draft-dodging, drug use, marital infidelity, questionable real estate dealings and soliciting illegal campaign contributions is probably going to stick with him through this one. So the direct fallout in terms of public support is likely to be minimal.

The White House strategy of handling scandals in the past--as in Whitewater, Vince Foster’s death and campaign finance violations--has been to delay official explanation as long as possible in hopes of getting the public to lose interest. Thanks to the complicated nature of these stories, combined with the voters’ short attention span, the strategy has been extremely effective.

But allegations of sexual harassment are much more visceral, so the court’s decision creates two extremely difficult political problems for Clinton.

First, the coverage of Jones’ charges creates a distraction not just for Clinton as he tries to be president, but also for a public that is willing to expend only a minimal amount of attention on matters of governance. Time on the evening news and space in the morning paper that might have been devoted to weightier issues will now be filled with leaks, rumors and innuendoes about what did or did not happen between Clinton and Jones in that Little Rock hotel room. The president will try to talk to the country about other things, but no one will be listening.

The second problem is trickier and in all likelihood, much more damaging. Because in addition to losing his presidential voice, Clinton will also lose his office’s bully pulpit.

Any president relies on a certain level of moral leadership to develop support for his policy agenda, and Clinton’s issues portfolio is brimming with items that require massive doses of moral suasion. In the weeks ahead, Clinton will be arguing about the balance between human rights and foreign trade with China. He will attempt to lead a discussion about race relations in this country. And he will be trying to convince the base of his own party that he has not abandoned the plight of the underclass by signing onto the Republican budget and welfare reform. The longer the Jones case drags on, the more Clinton’s cloak of authority will shrink.

Already, Clinton’s lawyers are talking about tactics that would keep the Jones case out of court as long as possible. One maneuver reportedly would have Clinton claim immunity on the grounds that he was not aware that sexual harassment constituted a violation of Jones’ civil rights. The political fallout of such a defense, needless to say, would be nuclear.

Putting the president of the United States on trial for sexual harassment is a guaranteed media circus, but at least it’s a short-term circus. Much more damaging would be 3 1/2 years of avoidance ploys.

Rather than allowing this dispute to obscure the rest of his time in office, Clinton should let the case go forward, endure a few weeks of bad publicity, embarrassment and talk-show jokes, and then get on with the work of his second term.

Facing up to adversity, though, has never been Clinton’s strong suit. And that, more than anything, is his real character flaw.