It's always good to listen to what the other person has to say and to view things, as best you can, from his perspective.

So, I was happy to read that AFL-CIO president John Sweeny, a frequent foe of Big Business, is scheduled to address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Nov. 11 board meeting in Washington. In return, chamber president Thomas Donohue will later address the labor federation's governing body. The two have pledged to cooperate on issues of mutual concern, such as shared opposition to the proposed global-warming treaty.

Historically, labor unions and conservatives agree on defending our country, a strong military with good weapons, good educational opportunities, being tough on criminals and strong religious convictions.

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I've written little about PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON'S legal problems ... but I can assure you, to me it is much more than about sex. It's unfortunate that too many television commentators and newspaper columnists simplify their positions so as to hold their readers or listeners. Thus we have so many varying levels of informed citizens reaching opinions on limited knowledge.

Treat the excerpts from this column in the Tuesday Wall Street Journal as one position to be considered:

"As a lifelong Democrat and chief counsel of the House Judiciary Committee at the time of the Nixon impeachment inquiry, I believe I have a personal responsibility to speak out about the current impeachment crisis. And I believe my fellow Democrats on today's Judiciary Committee have a moral, ethical and constitutional responsibility to vote to impeach President Clinton. The positions taken by the president and his die-hard Democratic defenders in Congress and the media are indefensible.

"We are living in dangerous times. I believe the president has personally brought his office into scandal and disrepute. He has lied repeatedly to the American people, has lied under oath in the Paula Jones case, has committed perjury several times before a criminal grand jury. He has also lied to his own cabinet members and has apparently lied even to his own lawyers. Without asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege, he has directly refused to answer appropriate questions from grand jurors -- an offense for which any other American would be held in contempt of court and jailed until he replied.

"To date the only defense taken by the White House and the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee is to take the offensive. They are attacking Kenneth Starr, arguing in the media that he has abused his legal authority. They have also declared `war' on Congress itself by charging Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde and House Republicans with partisanship and `unfairness.' Contrary to all impeachment precedents in both American and English history, they argue that even if the president has committed perjury -- a felony -- it is not an impeachable offense.

"History is now repeating itself in reverse. Almost a quarter century ago a Republican president took the offensive and accused the House Judiciary Committee and the Democratic-controlled Congress of `wallowing in Watergate' for partisan purposes. Today, Mr. Clinton's Democratic defenders are declaring all-out `war' on the Republican Congress and giving it no credit whatever for helping to balance the budget and improve the economy, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are arguing that special new rules should be adopted regarding impeachment procedures -- and that the traditional rules and impeachment precedents we relied on at the time of Watergate are not applicable to Mr. Clinton.

"Having long championed traditional Democratic causes, I simply cannot accept Mr. Clinton's own shameless defense and his supporters' offensive attacks on Congress and its traditional rules. Like most traditional Democrats -- like most Americans -- I have grave reservations about Mr. Clinton's morality and ethics. In my view there is now more than substantial evidence to consider our president a felon who has committed impeachable offenses.

"I believe that Democrats should -- and eventually some will -- vote to impeach Mr. Clinton, who has betrayed the trust of both the country and the Democratic Party." -- Jerome M. Zeifman

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Even the best newspapers have never learned how to handle public figures who lie with a straight face. -- Ben Bradlee Jr., former Washington Post editor, 1997

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Our country is based on a government of laws ... not of men or political parties, pollsters, spin artists. As it was said when I served in the Missouri House (this is paraphrased): Governors and presidents come and they go ... but the law remains and must be upheld.

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Give them credit. The liberals know how to play hardball. With impeachment a possibility, Clinton and his allies are doing what comes naturally to them: They take the offensive. Clinton accused Congress on Friday of doing nothing and putting politics before people. On Saturday, other liberal leaders from Jesse Jackson to Richard Gephardt had taken up the same refrain in an obviously coordinated strategy. I am not speculating about the coordination. Every morning at 11 a.m., a telephone call is placed from the White House to two dozen liberal strategists, lobbyists, consultants and pollsters. Marching orders are issued, and the propaganda line for the day is established. The Clinton team started practicing this "fast response" politics back in 1992. Bush didn't get it then, and Dole was surprised in 1996 by the same tactics. -- Washington Update

~Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.