WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, September 21) -- In nearly four hours of testimony on subjects ranging from oral sex to his selection of neckties, President Bill Clinton carefully walked a legal minefield of his own creation.

Most of Clinton's testimony had already been disclosed in the report Independent Counsel Ken Starr sent to Congress on September 9. But the four hours and three minutes of videotape which was broadcast and seen on the internet Monday gave the American people their first chance to see the president's demeanor as he answered questions under oath.

Although Clinton's responses ranged from angry to remorseful, the tape did not contain the bombshell some Republican critics had predicted. In fact, even when angered by the prosecutors' explicit questions about his sexual acts with Monica Lewinsky, Clinton did not reach the point of furious rage that some who had watched the taped before the public screening had described.

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The president was noticeably careful and legalistic in choosing his words, and often seemed to dance around the details of the Lewinsky affair to protect himself from his own statements made before he admitted to the "inappropriate" nature of the relationship.

Clinton continually maintained that although his contact with Lewinsky was inappropriate and he wanted to keep it secret, prosecutors and the lawyers for Paula Jones were involved in a "gotcha game" designed to catch him in a lie he did not tell.

Speaking slowly and cautiously, a stoic Clinton raised his right hand and swore to tell the whole truth to the grand jurors and prosecutors questioning him on August 17 about his relationship with Lewinsky. According to Starr's report, the president then looked them all straight in the eye and lied.

Beginning shortly before 9:30 a.m. EDT, the American people -- at least those who tuned in -- were forced to wade through complicated definitions and legalistic lines of questioning to search for the lies that Republicans hoped would be obvious under dogged questioning by Starr's prosecutors.

Almost as soon as the questioning began, Clinton read a statement in which he declared he never engaged in "sexual intercourse" with the former White House intern, but admitted the relationship "did involve inappropriate intimate contact" and "inappropriate sexual banter" in telephone conversations.

"These encounters did not consist of sexual intercourse," Clinton said. "They did not constitute sexual relations as I understood that term to be defined at my January 17, 1998 deposition but they did involve inappropriate intimate contact."

The home-video quality tape, with its poor audio and static camera, did not initially provide the explosive portrait of an embattled president that some of Clinton's critics had described.

But less than 40 minutes into the exchange the fireworks with prosecutors began as Clinton's icy facade melted during an emotional exchange over the definition of a "sexual relationship."

"I think it is clear what inappropriately intimate is. I have said what it did not include. It did not include sexual intercourse, and I do not believe it included conduct which falls within the definition I was given in the Jones deposition," Clinton angrily told prosecutors. "And I would like to stay with that characterization."

This legal hair-splitting, frequently criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike, characterized much of Clinton's testimony.

At one point prosecutors relayed a request from the grand jurors that they wanted the president to be more specific about the "inappropriate" behavior he had earlier acknowledged.

Clearly uncomfortable with the re-telling of the details of his sexual encounters with Lewinsky, Clinton avoided describing the specifics.

"I believe the grand jurors can ask me if I ... believe that this conduct falls within that definition (of sex)," Clinton said. "If it does, then you're free to conclude that my testimony is that I didn't do that. And I believe that you can achieve that without requiring me to say and do things that I don't think are necessary, and that I think, frankly, go too far in trying to criminalize my private life."

Clinton responded to many questions, including graphic questions about an unusual sexual practice that Lewinsky claims she and the president engaged in, by referring back to his original statement.

Nearly two hours into the taped broadcast, Clinton got at the heart of the legal and political battle brewing on Capitol Hill during another emotional exchange over his testimony in the Jones deposition.

"I wanted to be legal without being particularly helpful," an animated and perspiring Clinton responded when prosecutors asked if his feelings that the Jones case was groundless meant that he did not have to be truthful in his deposition.

In the most plain-spoken and straightforward explanation of his answers in the Jones deposition, Clinton angrily responded:

"Did I want this (relationship with Lewinsky) to come out? No. Was I embarrassed about it? Yes. Did I ask her to lie about it? No. Did I believe there could be a truthful affidavit? Absolutely ... But I was determined to walk through the minefield of this deposition without violating the law. And I believe I did."

Clinton also expressed disgust with Paula Jones' lawyers, who he felt had ulterior motives.

"The real reason they were zeroing in ... was to try to get any person in there no matter how uninvolved with Paula Jones, no matter how uninvolved with sexual harassment, so they could hurt me politically," Clinton declared. "They knew what the evidence was, they knew what the law was and so they just thought they would take a wrecking ball to me and see if they could do some damage."

Clinton claimed the Jones' lawyers had decided his January 17 deposition was going to be the "Lewinsky deposition" before he arrived and that the questions set him up because he had not prepared to answer questions about the former intern.

Despite the anger and frustration, Clinton's testimony also contained moments where the president's feelings for Lewinsky were very apparent.

At one point Clinton looked down and smiled to himself as he described Lewinsky as "very persuasive."

"It breaks my heart she was ever involved in this," Clinton said while thanking prosecutors for granting immunity to the former intern.

Clinton, in trying to explain his concern over her job search after she left the White House, said of the 25-year-old Lewinsky: "She's basically a good girl. She's a good young woman with a good heart and a good mind. I think she is burdened by some unfortunate conditions of her ... upbringing. But she's basically a good person."

The president insisted, "I was not trying to buy her silence or get Vernon Jordan to buy her silence. I thought she was a good person. She had not been involved with me for a long time in any improper way, several months, and I wanted to help her get on with her life. It's just as simple as that."

Along with the videotape, the House Judiciary Committee Monday also released Monday the appendix to the Starr's report to Congress. The 3,183 pages of testimony and other evidence, including photographs of exhibits such as Lewinsky's semen-stained dress fills two thick booklets.

The Judiciary Committee spent hours last week redacting portions of the material.

The political "spinning" of the president's testimony began before the first frame of video reached the airwaves.

Republicans said the public needed to see the tape so voters could make up their own minds whether the president committed perjury in his description of his affair with Lewinsky.

But many Democrats, including Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), said the release of the tape was intended to embarrass the president, destroying his standing with voters, so he would be easier to impeach.

The White House attacked Starr and his prosecutors, hoping that viewers will get more angry at the questions than the answers.

After the taped finished broadcasting, the White House issued a statement saying that president should now be cleared of wrongdoing.

"Now that the President's testimony has been made available for all to see and hear, the real question for the American people and for the Congress of the United States is whether the president's conduct -- however it may be judged -- should result in the president's impeachment," the White House said. "That the president's conduct does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense should now be clear to everyone."

While the tape was being broadcast the president was at the United Nations urging world leaders to cooperate more in combatting terrorism.

Over Democrats' objections, the Judiciary Committee cleared the way Friday to release the videotaped grand jury testimony and appendix.

Clinton's testimony on August 17, after nearly seven months of denying he had a sexual relationship with the former White House intern, marked the first time the president admitted an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky.

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