Republicans who are in the forefront of investigating President Clinton or attacking him are having their own private lives scrutinised, and already three extramarital affairs have been "outed" as part of what is being called a "scorched earth policy".
The latest is the revelation that Mr Henry Hyde, the distinguished chairman of the House Judiciary Committee which is leading the impeachment inquiry, had a five-year affair with a married woman in Chicago in the 1960s. Since Mr Hyde, who is now 74 and known for his staunch Catholicism, took over this task he has been hailed on both sides as the best suited for guiding the impeachment process in a fair manner.
The revelation of his affair with a beauty stylist, Ms Cheri Snodgrass, came on the on-line magazine, Salon, which has been a fierce critic of Independent Counsel, Mr Ken Starr, and is seen as close to the White House.
Mr Hyde told Salon: "The statute of limitations has long since passed on my youthful indiscretions." Acknowledging a "friendship" with Ms Snodgrass which ended when her husband confronted Mrs Hyde with the details, Mr Hyde said, "the only purpose for this being dredged up now is an obvious attempt to intimidate me and it won't work".
Mr Hyde said his marriage survived this affair. His wife, Jeanne, died of cancer in 1992.
The White House has strongly denied that it played any role in this matter or in the revelations that two other outspoken Republican critics of Mr Clinton had had extra-marital affairs. They are: Mr Dan Burton, chairman of the House committee investigating Democratic fund-raising abuses, and Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth, who has been using the President's affair with Ms Monica Lewinsky in her re-election campaign.
Just days before the Salon revelation, Mr Hyde issued a memorandum to his committee members about news reports that allies of the President "may be attempting to collect and disseminate derogatory personal information about members of Congress" as part of a "scorched earth policy".
ABC News reported on Wednesday night that two unnamed journalists were saying that a senior White House official had peddled to them a story that Mr Hyde once had a girlfriend. White House press secretary, Mr Mike McCurry, called ABC and "violently objected" when the network refused to give him the name of the aide allegedly involved.
The White House deputy press secretary, Mr Joe Lockhart, said the President had "zero tolerance for this kind of behaviour" and anyone engaging in it would be dismissed.
Political Washington is now in "sexual melt-down", a commentator has observed.