Je ne regrette rien, says Tripp on scandal

Linda Tripp, the woman who betrayed Monica Lewinsky, said yesterday that she was ready to "do it all over again". "It was worth it to me to do what I considered to be my patriotic duty and yes, I would do it all again," she said in an interview with NBC television. The television appearance, along with an interview in the New York Times, is part of a campaign to rehabilitate her battered public image. For Ms Tripp, the yearlong scandal has earned her widespread rejection from the US public. Earlier this year she publicly claimed, almost in tears, that she was just an ordinary citizen, not some sort of monster.

"The public has no clue . . . absolutely no idea what Monica endured," she said. "People think this is consensual and that I inserted myself somehow. But it was not . . . I always saw Monica as a kid, I always saw her as a lost soul."

Ms Tripp said the relationship was marked by "histrionics" and "hysteria" and that Ms Lewinsky had spoken of committing suicide more than once. "Where would Monica be today without that dress? Tell me," Ms Tripp said. "Would she be the stalker? Would she be the person who demanded sex of the President? Where would Monica be?"

She claimed that President Clinton thought of his relationship with Ms Lewinsky as "a servicing agreement", while Ms Lewinsky was "clearly a young girl in love with Elvis".

Ms Tripp told television viewers that she was only trying to help Ms Lewinsky. "If my daughter found herself in a situation such as this, where she was being abused, used, discarded, I would hope that someone would come in and help her."

Ms Tripp's secret tape recordings of her conversations with Ms Lewinsky, in which the former White House intern confessed to an affair with President Clinton, were turned over to independent counsel Kenneth Starr. That move triggered an investigation that led to the second presidential impeachment trial in US history.

In her interview with the New York Times, also published yesterday, Ms Tripp claimed she betrayed Ms Lewinsky to save her from being abused by Mr Clinton. "As a mom, especially with a daughter close in age to Monica, I would hope some other mom would do for my daughter what I did for Monica, despite the fact that it looks horrible, that it looks like betrayal."

Ms Tripp told the Times that it was New York literary agent Lucianne Goldberg's idea that she turn the tape recordings of Ms Lewinsky's conversations over to Mr Starr. "It never occurred to me to go to Ken Starr. It wasn't on my radar screen."

Ms Tripp portrayed herself as Ms Lewinsky's surrogate mother, who had no choice but to teach some tough lessons to her wayward daughter even if her methods were unorthodox, the daily said.