I know that in the past, Lavinia, you've expressed your amazement and a lack of understanding regarding the puritanical views that many Americans seem to have about sex, and I'm inclined to agree with you.

And if you told me that no self-respecting Italian male with a little wealth and power doesn't have a mistress, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised.

But perjury is a different issue.

President Clinton made numerous public pronouncements in which he denied a sexual involvement with not only Monica Lewinsky, but with other women as well.

While many of these statements, as later events came to show, were lies, they did not constitute perjury.

Perjury occurs when you lie under oath - when you've sworn to tell the truth in a court of law, for example, or before a Congressional hearing or a Grand Jury.

And while I could be mistaken here (it's been a while), I believe that Mr. Clinton was accused of committing perjury in his testimony in response to a lawsuit brought against him for sexual harrassment by Paula Jones, an Arkansas state employee for while he was Governor, and again - while I don't believe that his private sex life was anyone's business in the first place since he broke no laws that I am aware of - in his testimony before a Grand Jury investigating, among other things, his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky.

In other words, I don't think it was anyone's business what he did with Monica Lewinsky as long as he committed no crimes, but since he was under oath he had an obligation to be truthful.

There is, however, a fairly good "strictly speaking legal argument" ( YOU CAN READ IT HERE ) that can be made that he did not commit perjury.