As President Clinton announces the first balanced budget in 30 years, there is more interest in photographs of him and Hillary dancing and embracing in their bathing suits during their Christmas vacation in the Virgin Islands.
The colour pictures of the scantily clad First Couple on the front pages have angered White House aides for what they call "invasion of privacy" and even "stalking". The President, now back in Washington to wrestle with budget matters, was asked what he thought of being photographed from behind bushes.
He seemed to want it both ways. He agreed it was an invasion of privacy but as to the picture, "actually, I liked it quite a lot. But I didn't think I was being photographed."
Whether the photographers had the right to take the candid pictures was a constitutional matter, the President told reporters in the White House. It was up to the media where "to draw the line", he said, passing the buck. "That's why we have a First Amendment. You get to decide the answer."
The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees freedom of speech but whether that covers sneaking pictures from behind bushes of a couple on holiday is for lawyers to decide.
Agence France-Presse, which snapped the revealing picture, is unrepentant. It points out that the Secret Service agents guarding the First Couple were fully aware of the photographer's presence on a nearby public beach.
AFP also reportedly angered Hillary Clinton last August when it took pictures of her and the President embracing on a private beach on Martha's Vineyard.
Mutterings in the media that the embracing First Couple picture was deliberately set up to offset publicity about Ms Paula Jones's alleged encounter with Mr Clinton were dismissed by the White House Press Secretary, Mr Mike McCurry. "Would that we were that bright," he said sarcastically. No aide would have dared suggest that the Clintons act "lovey-dovey" for far-off cameras, he said.
"There's no practical thing we can do about it except to encourage people to just think twice about whether we want to live in that kind of environment in which people are sneaking around in bushes and taking pictures surreptitiously," Mr McCurry said.