President Clinton took off into the American heartland yesterday to promote his political programme, boosted by favourable reactions to his State of the Union address, but by no means in the clear from a sex scandal.
For the second day running, Mrs Hillary Clinton defended her husband in a prime-time television interview, saying he was the victim of a right-wing smear campaign. She predicted there would be no dramatic developments as legal procedures continued and she was confident it would all "fade into oblivion".
She added that "nobody can expect the President to say anything more publicly". But she has continued to refuse to characterise what kind of relationship Mr Clinton had with Ms Monica Lewinsky, while admitting that she has talked to him about it.
As the President was given an enthusiastic welcome by students at a small university in Champaign, Illinois, his former chief of staff, Mr Leon Panetta, was testifying in secret before a grand jury in Washington about what he knew of Ms Lewinsky, who used to work in his office.
Mr Panetta has irked the White House by a widely-quoted statement to a newspaper that if the allegations were true, President Clinton would have to resign.
The day before, President Clinton's personal secretary, Ms Betty Currie, had to testify. Ms Lewinsky is reported to have used Ms Currie's name to gain access to the White House, sometimes late at night, after she was transferred to the Pentagon.
Ms Lewinsky's taped allegations that she had oral sex with Mr Clinton in the White House and that he urged her to deny this when giving a sworn affidavit have rocked the presidency.
Mr William Ginsburg, Ms Lewinsky's lawyer, is still waiting to hear if she will be granted full immunity from the independent counsel, Mr Kenneth Starr, in return for her testimony. She and the President have given sworn statements that they did not have sexual relations, contradicting what she is allegedly saying on the tapes.
But all this sordid stuff was left behind in Washington as Mr Clinton took to the road to spread his good news about massive new spending on education, childcare and health. He was given a high powered warm-up by the normally poker-faced Vice-President, Mr Al Gore, whose bellowing endorsement had Mr Clinton looking on in wonder.
The audience of mainly Democratic activists cheered the President. He came fresh from his State of the Union address, which went down much better than his aides had feared in view of the sex scandal he has been battling for the past week.
The New York Times, which has been calling on the President to give fuller answers about Ms Lewinsky's allegations, praised his performance.
Just before Mr Clinton began his address, a man claiming to have had a five-year affair with Ms Lewinsky held a press conference in Portland, Oregon. Mr Andy Bleiler said that she had claimed in telephone conversations also to be having oral sex with a "high-ranking White House official".
Mr Starr dispatched several of his investigators to interview Mr Bleiler, who says he has documents and photographs that Ms Lewinsky sent him from Washington.
Even political enemies of Mr Clinton had to admire his performance in the State of the Union speech setting out his political agenda for the rest of his second term, but also sternly warning President Saddam Hussein he will not be allowed "to defy the will of the world" by his refusal to cooperate with UN weapons inspectors.
The speech was interrupted 102 times for applause, a record for Mr Clinton. It was carefully sanitised for any reference which could be seen as an allusion to the Lewinsky allegations. Nevertheless, Republicans seized on some innocuous references to "personal responsibility" and "integrity" to leap to their feet with loud applause, to the bewilderment of Democrats until they realised what was going on.
AFP adds: Monica Lewinsky has reportedly been offered $2 million by Penthouse magazine to pose nude.
The publisher of Penthouse, Mr Bob Guccione, sent a letter to Ms Lewinsky's lawyer offering to buy a "world-exclusive interview" and "modest, semi-nude photographs."