What exactly happened between President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky? The facts are so nebulous and rooted in assertion dulled by denial that the possibilities for the truth are numerous. With good reason, most people believe some of what they're reading and seeing, but not all of it. Most Americans seem to think Clinton and Lewinsky had some sort of affair, but that he did not tell her to lie under oath; they think Clinton is morally bankrupt, but don't much mind as long as he continues to lead the nation through economic bliss.

But wait. The truth does matter. It remains possible that Bill Clinton is not such a creep after all. And it remains possible that Clinton is more of a creep than you imagine. Just consider the distance between the following scenarios:

In the best case scenario, Lewinsky, a 21-year-old from a broken Beverly Hills family, lands a White House internship by working connections with a wealthy New York Democrat. Fresh out of Lewis and Clark College, where she was known to boast about affairs with married men, Lewinsky quickly takes to the idea of flirting with the President. She grabs assignments that will get her close to Clinton, making excuses to force her way toward the Oval Office. Clinton comes to notice her and treats her in his usual, friendly fashion. She finds him receptive to her flirtatiousness, and steps up the pace.

Soon, Clinton aides begin to see trouble in her eyes. They reassign her to the Pentagon, where Lewinsky meets Linda Tripp, a former Bush employee. Lewinsky brags to Tripp of her attempts to win the President's affection. Tripp is friends with Lucianne Goldberg, a New York literary agent who once posed as a journalist to spy for Richard Nixon. Goldberg has an idea: get Lewinsky to fantasize a bit further, put the confessions on tape and get revenge, once and for all, on Clinton and the Democrats. Lewinsky agrees to the plan and reads the scripted confessions over the phone. Tripp makes the tapes and leaks them first to a Newsweek reporter and then to so-called Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.

Lewinsky--who really does feel spurned by the President--doesn't ask for much in return for her name and reputation. Perhaps she is promised the chance to write a tell-all book like her mother had before her. When the reports of an affair surface, Clinton is dumb-founded and devastated. Of course he knows who Lewinsky is. She was that bubbly intern who used to give him presents. She was the one that wealthy New York donor told him to look after. She was the one he had Vernon Jordan help find a job after she kept calling him seeking help. But oral sex just outside the Oval Office? A dress stained with semen? Clinton is flabbergasted. His enemies have more gumption than he realized.

Now, the worst case scenario: Lewinsky comes into occasional contact with the President, who is a bit too friendly. She doesn't resist his glances, and is all too happy to follow him into that room behind the Oval Office. She is willing to do whatever the leader of the free world would like; he is willing to engage in a bit of, shall we say, stimulation with a woman less than half his age. Heck, he's got the Secret Service in his back pocket. If he can get away with the Gennifer Flowers affair, with refusing to settle with Paula Jones, with keeping his affair with Kathleen Willey out of the public eye, a little fun beneath the desk won't slip out.

But it doesn't happen just once. Lewinsky is often called to the Oval Office on some official task, only to end up in the same compromised position. Soon Clinton is calling her at night, when he needs a break from the budget or national security issues. The President is not worried. This is a special line, reserved for private calls. No one's listening. The security detail is out of earshot--or an agent has been paid off or warned to keep these chats private. As the sexual escapades continue, Lewinsky begins to want more. To appease her romantic side, Clinton has aides buy her presents, including a dress. Things are progressing smoothly until something happens. Perhaps Hillary finds out. Perhaps Clinton senses a few too many agents are catching on.

Lewinsky is shipped to the Pentagon, and she is not happy. She finds Tripp, who not only believes Lewinsky's story, but corroborates it. Lewinsky pours out the details of her relationship to Tripp, who relays the story to Goldberg. Goldberg, a woman with no tolerance for corruption in government, advises Tripp to tape the conversations. Soon the tapes fall into Starr's lap, and what is he to do but seek to find out more information? When the scandal breaks, Clinton is devastated. His political career is on the line, and he knows it. He knows how to lie for sure, can keep a straight face with the best of them. But he thought this one would not get out. Not now, not in this way, catching him totally off-guard. He's guilty, and this time everyone seems to know it.

So? Is Clinton a victim of malicious liars, sick partisanship, a savage press corps, an independent counsel gone hay-wire? Or are we the victims, those of us who voted for him and believed he was a good enough, if not perfect, man, prone to temptation but strong enough to lead without disgracing himself or the nation? Our questions may never be fully answered. But if we, as individuals and as a citizenry, lose our reason and dignity in the rush to crush this man, all of us will need to ask for forgiveness in the end.

Geoffrey C. Upton '99 is a social studies concentrator in Leverett House. His column will appear bi-weekly.