Bizarre, surreal, farcical, absurd, were some of the words used to describe the developments. While US Tomahawks were vapourising structures in distant Baghdad, a well-directed political missile landed in the Republican camp on the eve of the impeachment debate, grievously wounding a key player in the drama.

It turns out that the Speaker-elect Bob Livingstone has also had extramarital affairs. He joins a growing list of Republicans who have owned up in recent weeks to infidelity even as they nail President Clinton.

Livingstone came clean today after persistent rumours over the week that he was being outed by Hustler

, a porn magazine whose editor last month offered $ 1 million to anyone who would come forward with evidence that they had had an affair with a lawmaker or high government official.

Someoneapparently did, and Hustler, which has been scornful of ``Republican hypocrisy,'' was expected to do a hatchet job on Livingstone.

The Speaker-elect sang. ``I have decided to inform my colleagues and my constituents that during my 33-year marriage to my wife, Bonnie, I have on occasion strayed from my marriage and doing so nearly cost me my marriage and my family,'' a contrite Livingston disclosed on Thursday, hours before the impeachment debate, even as other lawmakers held their breath.

Hustler, whose editor Larry Flynt's ultraliberal crusade for free speech was the subject of a recent movie titled People Vs Larry Flynt, was hardly able to contain its glee. Livingstone ``is not the only one with a gun to his head,'' one of its editors warned darkly.

But the expose only seemed to harden Republican resolve to seal the impeachment. Livingstone said there would be no change in his plans to press for impeachment, and argued that he had warned previously that he was ``running forspeaker of the House and not running for a saint.'' He suggested that there was a difference between his failings and that of the President, which involved lying under oath and perjury.

Republicans immediately pointed a finger of suspicion at the White House which has come under increasing scrutiny because over the last few weeks, several key Republican lawmakers who are gunning for Clinton have had their past indiscretions and infidelities exposed, mostly by the liberal media.

Among the honorees: House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde who leads the impeachment move, Congressman Dan Burton whose committee is investigating campaign finance, and ultraconservative Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth. Michael Huffington, another prominent Republican, recently disclosed that he was gay. Ironically, he made that confession in an interview to David Broc, a journalist whose story on Clinton's alleged encounter with Paula Jones began the whole drama in 1992.

The sex scandal stories have now assumed such absurdproportions that on Thursday Russian legislators in Moscow seriously considered a motion appealing to Monica Lewinsky to help halt the American attack on Iraq, the Associated Press reported.

``The State Duma appeals to Ms Lewinsky to undertake corresponding measures to restrain the emotions of Bill Clinton,'' said the motion by nationalist lawmaker Alexander Filatov, echoing an American newspaper cartoon during the bombing of Afghanistan which showed an Islamic militant looking skyward amid the rubble and hollering, ``Send more interns! In the name of Allah, send more interns!'' The notion that (lack of) sex is the underlying cause for violence and wars has been the staple of not just shrinks but also late night gabmeisters.

``Saddam should have known better than to mess with Clinton. The President has not had sex for some time,'' one gagster quipped. Lewinsky also took some credit. ``Everyone said Monica Lewinsky could bring down the government. Who knew it would be Saddam Hussein's government?''joked another.