Transcripts of the now famous Linda Tripp-Monica Lewinsky conversation were known and published word for word. But few outside select lawyers, spooks, journalists, and Washington insiders had heard the tapes which tripped President Clinton.

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee released all 22 hours of the ``great betrayal,'' supplying them in brown boxes of 37 audio cassettes to accredited journalists.

It was a bonanza for the fast fading Monica industry, fuelled primarily by the radio, television and the Internet. With an unerring ear, eye and feel for ratings and hits, the new media jumped on the tapes, ratcheted up the stone cold story, and flogged it for one last time, saturating the air waves with snatches of conversation from two women in the throes ofa verbal embrace.

The result: America tuned in, willy nilly. At least it was difficult to tune out. All day long, TV talking heads pontificated on who entrapped whom and radio shockjocks jawboned on perjury and perfidy. For perhaps one last week this year, Monica and the sex scandal dominated the news again.

The tapes reveal a gruff and raspy Linda Tripp walking Monica Lewinsky through the cunning passages of conspiracy and betrayal. Tripp is clearly the dominating partner while Monica sounds confused, vulnerable and helpless.As Monica relates her affair with the President, Tripp leads her on, pumping her for more details, which the young girl is only too eager to reveal. She sounds comfortable, even anxious, to talk to the elder woman about her predicament--she has fallen in love, or lust, with the President (``the creep'') and he has cut her off.

Tripp is smart and sassy as she entraps a naive Monica, telling her to be careful about what she says on the phone, even as she is taping her. At one point,she even says the President is lucky that she (Monica) did not tape the wacko conversations they had at four in the morning. At no time does Monica appear to suspect that she herself is being taped in a great betrayal.One excerpt which was aired most often relates to the famous semen-stained blue dress which conclusively proved that President Clinton had sexual relations with Monica and nailed his early denial on this score.

Tripp strongly advises Monica to preserve a dress with Clinton's semen on it. ``What for, though?'' Monica asks, sounding surprised. Tripp tells her that people around Clinton could brand her a stalker and that the stained dress ``could be your only insurance policy'' down the road. ``I'll think about it,'' Monica says hesitantly. Tripp tells her to put the dress in a ziploc bag and ``pack it away with your treasures.''

Monica Lewinsky ultimately did that, leading to President Clinton being ensnared in a scandal he could no longer deny in the face of physical DNA evidence.

As thetapes flooded the airways, a small army of pop psychologists and sham sociologists took root on the talk shows, discussing how vulnerable Monica sounded and how brassy Tripp was. Easily the most reviled woman in America already, the tapes did no good to Tripp's reputation as a treacherous harridan.

Over the last two days, the Monica industry has got a fresh lease of life, first with her book deal with Lady Diana biographer Andrew Morton and her interview with ABC's Barbara Walters. Now with the tapes providing the first audition, even a movie or a television saga is not beyond possibility. And for the moment at least, an Internet website named www.gomonica.com looks like hanging in there in cyberspace a byte longer.