Every great hero had to conquer a villain, every great victory had some difficult cross to bear, and every time America appears to be enjoying a rest from controversy, a new opposition is created to continue the hype.

A perfect and simplistic observation of this repetitious struggle can be seen at your local video store. After the wartime movies passed us by, we were left without an enemy — no one to fight, no one to hate and no one to sit at the other end of our accusing finger. We were lost.

Unfortunately for the movie business, communism fell and we were once again left standing on a soapbox with no one to hear our empty advice. A new force was needed to threaten existence as we knew it, but this time it would be long-term. This time, the enemy must not disappear. Hence came the gruesome invasion of the aliens across the silver screen.

Continuously overdone, aliens have slowly taken a back seat to a movie (or two) about every natural disaster known to man. Tornadoes, floods, fires, asteroids and icebergs in the north Atlantic had their shinning moment, but it’s time to draw the readers and watchers into the next millennium.

Now movies and the media have found another long-term villain threatening the American way of life — a new villain that promises to be around indefinitely. We are not just talking about corruption in our government, but sexual corruption within the highest level of our elected officials. Lucky Bill Clinton has come into the presidency during an intermission of newsworthy enemies.

While Bill is not the first (or last) president to have had lucid affairs while in the White House, the movie companies and magazine publishers can rejoice in the obvious fact that his past dealings of womanizing are a little harder to cover up. But are the movie kickbacks and newspaper residuals worth the cost of disabling the American presidency?

A frenzy has been created after nearly four years of Starr’s single-minded pursuit of Clinton for any evidence of any crime. From this point forward, future presidents can expect to have high profile special prosecutors on their coattails to hand out judgments on every aspect of their personal lives. What is the real cost? It is unlikely the House would have the courage to impeach a president for basically having an affair and lying about it.

We, the people, shunned that off long ago. Sure, he is probably guilty. And while we all live on a moral high ground that doesn’t condone his behavior, it’s not worth removing him from office.

We are dragging the presidency through the mud. We are digging for a remedy that doesn’t exist. The only person really benefiting from this tragedy will be the writer of the first made-for-TV movie. Is it worth it?

Ellyn Peterson is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Algona.