Monitor: US opinion on the newly released tapes of the Lewinsky- Tripp phone conversations

All the News of the World

COUNT YOURSELF lucky if you got through Monday without being force- fed sound bites from the tedious Tripp-Lewinsky tapes. First there was the Starr Report, then the audio edition - will the movie be out by Christmas? Honk if you're sick of the Monica marathon.

San Francisco Chronicle

MONICA DOESN'T sound like a throaty sex kitten at all. She sounds like just what she is: a confused, intelligent but emotionally immature young woman who's fallen in love with an older, unresponsive, married man. And Linda Tripp sounds like just who she is: a wicked witch who's desperately trying to manipulate Monica into doing or saying whatever's necessary to trap the President in an illegal act.

Los Angeles Times

HEARING THE voices, Tripp's nasal tones alternately calming and cajoling the higher-pitched Lewinsky, revealed the humanity of two people who had become little more than caricatures. Like Harpo Marx and a generation of silent film stars, Lewinsky existed until yesterday as a mute celebrity, an empty vessel into which millions could pour their fantasies. The voice provided a dose of deflating reality.

The Washington Post

SHE MAY have been an adult when she poured out her heart to Tripp, but she hadn't grown up: a reminder that maturity is more than the appearance of sophistication. She has probably crossed that threshold now, with all the notoriety she has gained from her fixation on a man who not only ought to have known better, but actually admits that he did know better and went ahead with it anyway.

Arkansas Democrat Gazette

AS PATHETIC as they are, the tapes are a stark reminder of what the move to impeach President Clinton is about: a sex scandal pumped up by a partisan prosecutor. The adenoidal Lewinsky comes off as what she is: a lovesick post-adolescent. Tripp emerges as the wicked witch, coolly monotonal, luring the younger woman into a web of betrayal as she offers a mini-lesson on gathering DNA evidence with Q-Tips.

New York Daily News