In the week beginning 7 September, a member of the White House security staff - who else could it have been? - sent Matt Drudge, cyber muckraker, a CCTV clip, 'on condition that its origin and owner not be disclosed'. The tape showed the President returning from his morning jog in August 1993 accompanied by a troupe of bodyguards and young staffers. In the blunt words of a pseudonymous commentator on one of the e-mail chat-sites which cling barnacle-like to the Drudge Report, it showed a post-run young female 'jiggling her tits' and 'tenderly' wiping the Presidential brow. Finally, after the others were dismissed, Ms Jiggler adjourned with the President into the windowless hallway off the Oval Office, later to be made famous by the Starr report. Over his shoulder the President enquired how much time he had before his next appointment. Enough, it seemed.

LRB 1 October 1998 | PDF Download