It was nearing midnight in the solarium, the informal room on the third floor of the White House. The Mexican food had been cleared away, and a few dinner guests were hanging out waiting for the President to come back from taking a phone call. Just as he was returning, the First Lady noticed out of the corner of her eye that the TV was on, tuned to the David Letterman show. Casually, she leaned over, picked up the remote control and switched the set off before the President could hear a barrage of scandal jokes.

It's hard to believe she would need to protect him from the Top 10 Reasons Monica Is a Babe. But Hillary's gut response is always to defend the President against incoming fire. What's different this past month is her failure to go on the offense. For the first time, she hasn't scraped the staff off the floor, quarterbacked the Hail Mary pass or given her own statements. And when she said, just before the worst performance of his life on Aug. 17, "It's his speech. Let him say what he wants," it wasn't helpful, nor meant to be.

What a time for a work slowdown. The First Lady may not be able to save the President the way she saved the candidate, but she surely will hurt him if she doesn't stand by him once again, and not like some potted plant. Within days after the Lewinsky scandal broke, Hillary was on the Today show shouting her husband's praises. But for weeks now, there have been only perfunctory remarks during icy cameo appearances, bad body language and her failure to refer to the President with her usual "my husband" at a Moscow event.

Like so much coming out of the White House, Hillary's anger could be one more piece of spin, which makes it hard to interpret her switch to a hyper-smiley face during a flurry of public appearances at the end of last week. If Hillary had been faking anger because that's what any normal person would feel, she did it well. Rather than say anything herself, she issued a chilly statement of forgiveness through an aide. The Administration seemed eager to disclose that the Martha's Vineyard vacation was a time for "healing." It certainly wasn't a time for fun. She sulked behind sunglasses, stared straight ahead and answered in monosyllables. There were no late evenings singing around the piano with Carly Simon and Beverly Sills, no going out every night till all hours, no golf. The guest house where the President spent most of his time alone was akin to the woodshed.

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