The White House's Touching Defense

WASHINGTON: Finally -- we've gotten down to what the President touched, and when he touched it. In his rebuttal of the House's perjury allegations, White House counsel Greg Craig touched the expected bases, attacking the articles as unfairly vague, the charges as laughable, and the House managers as having gone far beyond what even Ken Starr had in mind. But Craig's best gambit may have been coaxing the hitherto unspoken onto the Senate floor -- and getting House manager Bill McCollum to elaborate on it during a break: The House's perjury case, in large part, rests on the question of whether Bill touched Monica's breast with the intent to arouse.

Sound silly? TIME White House correspondent Jay Branegan says that's exactly the idea. "By isolating the breast issue, he's trying to telegraph to the Senate that this is what awaits them if witnesses are called," he says. "First, that it's trivial, and second, that it's salacious." The White House knows that the Senate holds its dignity particularly dear these days, and Craig's job was to confront Republicans with the inanity that's in store if they hold the party line in next week's vote. "Most of Craig's case sounded like a lot of boring legalisms," says Branegan. "But hair-splitting can help their case, especially if they can drag the Republicans into it too." The message: Give up anytime, guys, it's all downhill from here.

Then Craig turned it over to deputy counsel Cheryl Mills -- the first female lawyer of the trial -- who tried to put Betty Currie and those gifts in a softer light. Make that too soft. Mills sandwiched some compelling arguments on why Clinton did not obstruct justice between emotional opening and closing statements that had nothing to do with the case and everything to do with playing the race card. But if Mills' attempt to use Clinton's good record on race relations to absolve him of sexual harassment fell flat with some senators, it was compelling testimony that may have touched their hearts -- or their consciences.

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