It was a classic Bill Clinton moment.
His temper flaring in indignation, Clinton rejected a journalist's suggestion that he has a reputation for evasiveness and declared: "I've just got to learn to play all these word games better."That was early in the 1992 campaign. Clinton already was well schooled in the politician's art of finessing words to reveal as little or as much as desired.
Six years later, Clinton has promised to testify "completely and truthfully" on Monday about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Within that framework, the president and his aides weighed just what he should say.
What to volunteer. What to hold back.
The precise phrasing of an answer can leave him miles of wiggle room or fence him in.
Democratic consultant James Carville, a veteran of Clinton's 1992 campaign, says the president needs to be forthright with prosecutors. But he also recalls the joke about a man who appeared in court and was ordered to tell "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
"Judge, which one do you want?" the man asked.
With this president in particular, matters of syntax matter.
Clinton's reputation for crafting artful answers in sticky situations dates to his days as Arkansas governor, when a local columnist dubbed him "Slick Willie."
On Friday, the Republican National Committee faxed around a Washington Times article listing the 200-plus times that Clinton ducked or hedged answers during his January deposition in the Paula Jones lawsuit.
I don't remember . . .
To my knowledge, no . . .
To the best of my memory . . .
I don't have any direct knowledge . . .
The list went on and on.
Stanley Renshon, a professor of political science and psychoanalyst at the City University of New York, said Clinton's clever use of words extends beyond the norm.
"I call it liars' loopholes," he said.