It is exceedingly rare in American electoral politics when one's vote for his or her congressperson can have an immediate and predictable result over a momentous question. But come this Nov. 3, Americans will have the opportunity to determine whether President Clinton is impeached or not. PNS associate editor Michael Kroll spells out the high stakes in the upcoming House of Representatives election.

In a moment of historical irony, American voters can actually determine directly whether the President of the United States will be impeached or not.

Make no mistake: the question facing the country -- what to do with a President whom Americans do not trust to be alone with their wives or daughters but overwhelmingly trust to carry out the duties of his office -- is intensely partisan. While the Republican House of Representatives moves toward an impeachment inquiry and then, ultimately, to an impeachment vote, Democrats are floating various trial balloons to end the unseemly spectacle. House Minority Leader Dick Gephart -- no Clinton clone -- has called for a 30-day time limit to settle the matter. The President himself says the way to end the problem is "for the people in Washington to do what the folks in America want them to do."

Come November 3, when all 435 members of the House of Representatives are up for election, the folks in America can do just that. Under the U.S. Constitution, "The House of Representatives... shall have the sole power of impeachment." Impeachment -- the bringing of charges -- would not dispose of the matter, but only inaugurate a formal process at the end of which the Senate would vote aye or nay on the impeachment charges brought by the House. For the President to be removed from office, two thirds of those Senators voting must agree. (Only one President in American history, Abraham Lincoln's vice president and then President Andrew Johnson, has ever been impeached by the House of Representatives. He survived the Senate's jury decision by one vote.) The simple truth is this: if the Republicans retain control of the House after the November elections, then impeachment is likely. If Democrats regain control, there will be no impeachment and the entire crisis is likely to end quickly.

It is exceedingly rare in American electoral politics when one's vote for his or her congressperson has such an immediate and predictable result over such a momentous question. Indeed, the most common complaint of most potential voters, and especially those who do not vote, is that "my vote won't make a difference." This is one election when that excuse will no longer apply. Indeed, the outcome of this vote will make a significant, historic difference.

From now until November 3, the country will be bombarded with vote-for-me messages from candidates who are all for better schools, against more crime, for fuller employment, and against terrorism. But how these general consensus categories translate into individual votes on particular pieces of legislation cannot be predicted. That is what makes the next congressional election, just a month hence, so different from any that have gone before: the results will have an immediate and predictable outcome.

In November, every voter in the country can register his or her decision as to whether the President should be impeached. Those who believe he should be, thus undoing the results of the 1996 election, should vote for their Republican candidate for Congress. Those who believe he should not be, thus bringing the crisis to an end, should vote for their Democratic candidate for Congress.

If the Republicans hold on to their majority in Congress in November, we are in for a long and bumpy ride. If the Democrats recapture the House, then, perhaps, the smarmy mess that now captivates our media, consumes our elected officials, and makes us the laughingstock of the world -- our long national wet dream -- will come to an end.