Presidential aides indicated that $375,000 of the settlement money came from the personal funds of the First Couple, which is said to be largely bankrolled by the money earned by First Lady Hillary Clinton. Another $475,000 came from the President's insurance company which agreed to buy out Clinton's personal liability policy. Under the terms of the settlement, Jones will not get the apology she demanded.

While the White House was trying to put behind the episode which ignited the whole issue, Washington was a cauldron of scandals after pornography publisher Larry Flynt accused a conservative Republican Congressman of abetting an abortion by his second wife whom he has since divorced, and evading questions about an affair with another woman who subsequently became his third wife. Flynt paid the Congressman's second wife an undisclosed sum of money for the revelations.

The Congressman, Republican Bob Barr, is one of President Clinton fiercest critics and is a member of the 13-House team which will prosecute Clinton before the Senate. He is also a strong advocate of family values, and like most conservative Republicans, is pro-life.

Barr denied that he had ever suggested abortion, but did not address any specific issues about his personal life. He also accused Flynt of being in cahoots with the White House in an effort to derail the impeachment proceedings against the President.

The White House denied the charge and said the President was against the `politics of personal destruction.' But liberals and left-wingers rejoiced at what they saw as an expose of Republican hypocrisy.

Flynt, meanwhile, threatened even more disclosures unless the Republicans reeled in what many liberals feel is a witchhunt against President Clinton. ``There is another shoe of two to drop,'' the corpulent pornographer growled in one television interview, sending a wave of panic among some Republicans and causing revulsion among many others.

Flynt's supporters indicated that at least eight other cases were being investigated by private eyes hired by the publisher. But these would only be made public if the GOP lawmakers continued to torment Clinton, they suggested.

Several commentators said there was complete pandemonium in the Republican ranks amid fears of more revelations. ``It is an open season here. This town has more landmines than Cambodia,'' one pundit remarked.

But Flynt's associates said they would be selective in their targeting. ``If a Republican hasn't been shooting his mouth off, we let him go. We are throwing it (the evidence) back into the river. We're not going to interfere with his life,'' one Flynt aide was quoted as saying.

Flynt himself said in an appearance on Larry King Live that he had decided not to publish details of a scandal regarding deposed Speaker-elect Bob Livingstone after the Republican lawmaker's wife phoned him to plead and explain the pain they had gone through. Livingstone resigned last month amid reports that Flynt was about to expose his marital infidelities. The details were never made public and Livingstone faded out of the political arena.

Meanwhile, amid the torrent of indelicate and salacious sex scandals, analysts and lawmakers also grappled with delicate matters of propriety and protocol relating to the impeachment trial which begins in the Senate on Thursday.

For instance, a dinner by President Clinton on Monday night for visiting Argentine President Carlos Menem was attended by at least seven Senators -- both Republican and Democrat -- who are in effect jurors during the impeachment trial. Some experts questioned their act, while others argued that the office of the President was different from President Clinton and matters of protocol could not be confused with issues of propriety.

On the same grounds, the latter group also argued that Clinton should go ahead with the State of the Union address on January 19, as he has pledged to. But many experts said it would be wrong on part of Clinton to address a joint session of Congress at a time when one wing (the House) has impeached him and the other (the Senate) will judge him.

Incidentally, it was almost one year to this week last year that the Monica Lewinsky story broke. Clinton then went on to deliver his State of the Union address even as new revelations were surfacing in the press. He was accorded a standing ovation by lawmakers from all sides.