What is emerging is just how much the entire investigation is relying on the word of Lewinsky's confidant, Linda Tripp. The now-famous Newsweek story, which was all set to scoop the world on Saturday, acknowledges Tripp as its main possibly only source. It is Tripp who has controlled access to the only 90 minutes of tape the media has heard, in which Lewinsky refers to an affair with "the big he" and "creep," and also says, alarmingly, "I have lied my entire life."
One cold hard fact: Lewinsky has just lost her job with the Revlon Corp. in New York, the offer of which was withdrawn in the light of yesterday's publicity. Not to mention having to cope with the revelation that one of her closest friends taped her conversations for Kenneth Starr and the FBI. Talk about distraught.