WASHINGTON, June 2: If Paula Jones goes ahead with her plan to take President Bill Clinton to trial - thus forcing a possible scrutiny of the Presidential anatomy - the chief executive will respond by calling up men from her past and delving into her sexual history.

Lawyers for the two sides conjured up this messy possibility on Sunday television talk shows as they battled to swing public perception but instead touched moral low ground in a case that has begun to titillate and disgust America at the same time.

Clinton's personal lawyer Robert Bennett indicated that he would drag Jones through the mud if, as threatened, her lawyers sought testimony from other women who may have been propositioned by Clinton during his tenure as Arkansas Governor. Jones' lawyers also said they could also call state troopers who might have asked women to meet with Clinton during that time.

``You know this is a two-way street... If Paula Jones insists on having her day in court and her trial and she really wants to put her reputation at issue, as we hear, we are prepared to do that,'' Bennett responded darkly on NBC's Meet the Press.pBennett groupies have made it known that they have been questioning a man who said he had an intimate relationship with Jones. The man was reportedly flown to Washington and put up in a hotel by the lawyers and is believed to have provided a sworn statement about her behaviour.

Jones' pictures have previously appeared in Penthouse magazine although she claims that they were sold to the magazine by her former boyfriend.

Bennett's remarks were apparently aimed at discouraging Jones from pursuing her lawsuit following a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling last week that the President did not have any constitutional right to postpone a trial on her complaint until he leaves office.

However, the attorney left some scope for a face-saving option by hinting that Clinton may agree to an out-of-court settlement of $700,000 if the funds went to charity, but he would not apologise or admit to the episode claimed by Jones.

``Paula Jones and her counsel are prepared to try to humiliate the President of the United States and hurt this country for the almighty buck,'' Bennett said, adding, ``We're the laughingstock of the world when we allow this kind of nonsense to go on.'' But the offer appeared to be a feeble and misplaced effort to find an escape route for Clinton based on Jones' assertion that she was not suing for money and that she will be happy to give any money she wins to charitable institutions.

Jones lawyers sounded cockier than usual as they scoffed at the possibility of a financial settlement sans tacit acknowledgment of guilt. ``The core feature of a settlement is not money. Ten million dollars would not do it,'' Jones attorney Gilbert K Davis said on ABC's `This Week'.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Newsweek in its forthcoming issue, Jones is quoted as saying that she will proceed with her suit and wants Clinton to acknowledge he had her brought to his room that day. ``I can't wait till those subpoenas start going out... I want him to admit what he did,'' she says of the alleged episode in which she says the President dropped his trousers and sought oral sex in a hotel room in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1991. Jones has said previously that she can identify some distinguishing marks on the Presidential jewels. Tabloid gossip and Internet chatter say Jones' testimony would place a tattoo of a bald eagle on or near the Presidential prosthetic.

Clinton lawyers say the incident never happened and the President ``will not apologize for something which never happened''. The President apparently repeated the denial to his lawyers at a meeting on Saturday night. The President's lawyers however concede now that it was possible Clinton met that day in a hotel room with Jones, although the President does not remember it. White House officials had previously denied the very possibility. But both officials and lawyers insist the President will not stoop to compromise.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.