So where is it at four weeks after the bombshell burst? Well, he is still President of the United States, although some pundits had him gone in days. Now he seems set to finish his term while the lawyers squabble.
Monica Lewinsky's once glitzy life has become miserable as a virtual prisoner in the Watergate complex, hounded by the media and needing a defence fund to pay her lawyer's fees. Her doctor father is paying them at present but wonders how long he can afford it.
It is the lawyers at $300 an hour who are coining it as the Lewinsky affair has got bogged down in legal battles between the President's attorneys and the independent counsel, Ken Starr. He is issuing subpoenas to almost everything that moves in the White House apart from Buddy and Socks.
It has all got very complicated, so here is an attempt to throw some light.
The President has denied publicly on TV and in a sworn affidavit that he ever had sexual relations with Monica. He gave the affidavit to the lawyers of Paula Jones as part of her civil action against him for alleged sexual harassment.
This action is down for hearing in a Little Rock court on May 27th. Ms Jones's lawyers have been seeking evidence from a list of women who had dealings with Mr Clinton over the years to try to prove a "pattern of behaviour" of sexual harassment or abuse. This is how Monica Lewinsky's name first surfaced following an anonymous tip-off to Ms Jones's lawyers.
The President has also denied that he tried to get anyone to lie arising out of whatever relationship he had with Monica. This is where Mr Starr comes in.
He was already investigating the failed Whitewater property development in which the Clintons were involved in the 1970s for any evidence of wrongdoing. Starr has not yet reported but has successfully prosecuted a number of friends of the Clintons.
Now Starr has been given authority by Mr Clinton's Attorney General, Janet Reno, to investigate allegations that the President had an affair with Monica, and that he and his friend, lawyer Vernon Jordan, tried to hush it up by encouraging her to commit perjury.
The basis for these allegations was Linda Tripp, former colleague of Monica. She claims that Monica talked freely to her about a sexual affair she had with the President while an intern in the White House and later when working at the Pentagon.
Monica is also said to have told Tripp that the President and Vernon Jordan encouraged her to deny that she had sex with the President. Linda Tripp illegally taped some of these telephone conversations and handed them over to Mr Starr.
Before this happened, Monica had sworn an affidavit for the Paula Jones lawyers that she had never had sex with the President, nor that he had encouraged her to lie, thus contradicting what is on the tapes. Starr has been trying to get Monica to testify before a grand jury to confirm what she said on the tapes.
If she did this, she would be admitting to perjuring herself when she swore she did not have sex with the President, but Starr would give her immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony. She was, it is claimed, ready to admit what is now being called "an unusually close relationship", but she would be vague about being asked to lie about it, which is the crucial aspect for Starr.
There is a stand-off between Starr and Monica's lawyer, William Ginsburg, who is not satisfied with the immunity offer.
If this impasse continues, Starr can subpoena Monica to testify, and offer her limited immunity, but he wants to know in advance how much she is ready to co-operate. If she refuses he could indict her for perjury on the basis of the tapes and evidence from other witnesses to whom she allegedly talked about an affair with the President.
Legal experts believe Starr would have a weak case if Monica stands by her denial of an affair, as Tripp and the tapes are seen as dubious evidence. Going after a young woman on the basis of what she said about her love life would go down badly and damage Starr's reputation.
For the President, things are looking rather better than a month ago, but he is by no means in the clear. The most serious charge Starr is investigating is not that he might have had an affair, but that he tried to get Monica to swear false information in her affidavit. This "suborning of perjury", if proved, would probably lead to Congress starting impeachment proceedings. When this happened to President Nixon in 1974, he resigned. As we have seen, the perjury charge is on shaky ground.
But the President would also have a serious problem if Monica ends up saying on oath under pressure from Starr that she did have a sexual affair with him. After all, he has sworn he did not and has also told the American people in the most explicit terms that he did not have sex "with that woman, Ms Lewinsky".
He could not be impeached for having an affair, although adultery is a seldom-invoked criminal offence under Washington DC law. But if he is seen to have lied to the American people over an affair could he still survive?
The people themselves seem confused, according to polls. Most expect him to be truthful when questioned about his sexual behaviour (55 per cent), but if he is shown to have lied, only 21 per cent say he should resign and 12 per cent that he should be impeached.
If Monica Lewinsky continues to stand up to Ken Starr, her President is safe. But she is not ready to go to jail for him, her lawyer has said. It's not over yet.