Public Eye Now for the Skate-Off

By MARGARET CARLSON

"Maybe I'll give her a hug. If she'll let me."

That's Tonya Harding speaking on Inside Edition, and praise be the gods of Olympus, Harding will get at least within hugging range of her rival and alleged victim, Nancy Kerrigan. This is not because Harding shouldn't be punished. If she participated in the plot to injure Kerrigan, neither underdog sympathy nor childhood deprivation, an excessive supply of stepfathers, failure to snag endorsement contracts or other bad breaks in life should keep her from being tried and serving time.

But why should the rest of us, who have focused feverish attention on this story even when it required a passing knowledge of the bylaws of the U.S. Olympic Committee, have to suffer? A country lives by its myths, and seldom has there been such an opportunity for an epic to be played out in an international arena as this skate-off between Harding and Kerrigan at the Winter Games. Lately, the public has been denied closure in other morality tales: neither Bobbitt will serve time; California may never be able to cobble together a jury sufficiently unaffected by victim empathy to convict the Menendez brothers; Buffalo is unlikely to ever get another chance to beat Dallas.

All who believe in justice should cheer Harding's eleventh-hour lawsuit, which has taken her fate out of the hasty hands of the star-chamber U.S.O.C. and put it into the slow-as-molasses legal system with all its constitutional safeguards. This is a rare moment when the interests of the low-road entertainment mongers and the sticklers for due process coincide. Otherwise, the ending would have to play out in parallel universes -- Kerrigan at Lillehammer, on Saturday Night Live and in Reebok ads; Harding on Inside Edition, the carpet of the .S.O.C. and in No Excuses jeans ads. Worse yet, the finale could be relegated to a made-for-cable movie.

We're already watching the movie. Unlike most dramas that can only recreate the crime, the attack in question -- and most subsequent plot points -- are already on film. The videocam verite of the clubbing provides the same gritty realism that the Zapruder footage brought to Oliver Stone's JFK. The blow-by- blow of the investigation, the arrests, the confessions, the plea bargains -- it's all in the can. There was even a play within a play when stakeout cameras captured Tonya saving her illegally parked pickup from a tow truck. The most hardened Tonya detractor must have momentarily rooted for her.

Letting Tonya skate will send a loud and clear message that crime doesn't pay. If Harding loses, her victim is transported to the ether of celebrity as a plucky survivor of a vicious assault who goes on to bring back the gold for her country. In fact, human nature favors Kerrigan: Olympic judges, like Supreme Court Justices, read the election returns, and Kerrigan, the goddess of good, already enjoys a significant edge over Harding, the consort of thugs. On the other hand, if Kerrigan falls and Harding triple-Axels her way to victory, then what crueler punishment could be devised than for Harding to lose her medal if she is eventually found guilty?

The millions of people who have followed this drama want a cleaner finish than would have been produced by a protracted courtroom battle with no time on the rink. They want an international duel in which good sportsmanship, staying within type and fair play are triumphant; where intact families, modest costumes, chemical-free hair and good teeth are rewarded. This time, thank God for the lawyers. And let the skating begin.