President Clinton has set off on a Democratic fund-raising tour buoyed by a rebound in the polls and signs of a backlash against Republican tactics on the Starr report.
After a week of fruitless efforts to persuade Republicans to consider a censure motion instead of impeachment, Mr Clinton and his aides switched to attacking the majority for holding up important legislation on Capitol Hill.
Refusing to answer reporters' questions about his troubles, Mr Clinton instead turned on the Republicans.
"By failing to meet its most basic governing responsibility, the Republican majority in Congress has its priorities wrong - partisanship over progress, politics over people," he said before flying to Chicago, and later to California, to raise millions of dollars for Democratic candidates in November's election.
The Senate majority leader, Mr Trent Lott, called Mr Clinton's remarks "a gratuitous slap" at Congress. "We're doing our work," Mr Lott said. "Maybe he just hasn't noticed. He's distracted. What he's trying to do is distract attention from his problems."
Favourable poll results clearly contributed to Mr Clinton's new-found confidence. The broadcasting of his videotaped grand jury testimony on Monday, which was supposed to have further damaged his standing, has instead increased his support among the US public.
The latest New York Times/CBS poll shows that 78 per cent disapprove of the release of the videotape. And 65 per cent do not want Congress to hold impeachment hearings, an increase of seven points since before the videotape was shown.
Only 31 per cent believe Mr Clinton should resign, as against 65 per cent who say he should finish his term. His job approval rating remains steady in the mid-60s, but falls under 50 per cent among the category of "most likely voters".
Asked if the time and money expended on the investigation of the President by independent counsel Mr Ken Starr was justified, 78 per cent replied "No".
Republicans will be puzzled and disappointed by the rebound in Mr Clinton's poll ratings following the broadcast of his testimony in which Mr Starr claims he committed perjury. However, the Republican majority is committed to the impeachment process, although no votes have yet been taken to begin the formal investigation. These are expected on October 4th or October 5th.
Yesterday the House Judiciary Committee debated deletions in the 65,000 pages of material backing the Starr report. While the huge mass of material is to be released to the printers before Tuesday, it may not be available to the public until later in the week.
It consists largely of transcripts of evidence to the grand jury over the past eight months and of the 20 tapes of recordings made by Ms Linda Tripp of her conversations with Ms Monica Lewinsky.
Some of the conversations are being censored because of grossness, but the committee has to decide if only transcripts will be released or the actual audiotapes as well.
Both the President and Mrs Clinton are calling members of Congress as part of a campaign to rally support among wavering Democrats. Mrs Clinton's spokeswoman said that she had "certainly talked to some members, making the case that she's very proud of the President".
Mr Clinton is said to be trying to gauge his support on Capitol Hill as the impeachment process moves forward. However, the prospects of the Democrats gaining the 11 seats they need in the House of Representatives to become a majority in the next Congress are regarded as poor.
Political observers say there is a real danger that many registered Democrats will not turn out to vote and that Republicans will be more motivated to show their anger at Mr Clinton.
