(This weekend also includes Valentine's Day, of course, but the Senate's vote hardly adds up to a valentine for the President.)
Although the big question has been answered, it's one of the very few that have. As this latest ''trial of the century'' closes (we've had two in this decade), many other questions remain, some of them calling for long and hard thought:
Have recent events dumbed down the impeachment process, as many politicians insist?
The suggestion is that if decisions are always made strictly along party lines (as this one all too obviously was), no president impeached by the House of Representatives ever will be dismissed.
To answer that question, ask this one: Had Richard Nixon been impeached, wouldn't he likely have been found guilty of ''high crimes and misdemeanors'' by two-thirds of the Senate?
The answer is yes. Therefore, the process hasn't been dumbed down. It just didn't work out this time the way some would have liked.
Has the Republican Party been gravely damaged?
Depends on the voting public's memory. Were elections held this week, it's a safe bet at least some of the most vociferous Republican members of Congress would be sent packing. But nine months - or 21 months - from now, will other developments obscure the memory of what has just passed? (Think of George Bush: winner of a popular war one moment, out of a job the next.)
Is Bill Clinton determined to get revenge?
He indicated no such thing when he responded to the country post-verdict with - it seemed - tears in his eyes, but he has lied before, heaven knows. And this is still politics. He did say, in reply to the only press question to which he responded, ''I believe that anybody who asks for forgiveness has to be prepared to give it.'' That ostensibly spontaneous remark, however, is one that has supposedly circulated in the White House for some time.
