CLINTON SEX SCANDAL WILL PASS, LAWYER SAYS.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

With polls showing President Clinton enjoying soaring popularity, the attorney for his would-be accuser in a sex scandal said Sunday he expects the brouhaha will fade away and that Clinton, his client and the country will move on to other issues.

``It'll go away. It'll pass,'' attorney William Ginsburg said on NBC's ``Meet the Press.''

``The president will remain in office, he'll do a good job, we'll all, hopefully, have a sound economy, keep our jobs, and I think everything's going to be fine.''

Ginsburg, who represents former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, also said on ``Fox News Sunday,'' ``The president will survive. I think the country will be fine.

``We have much more pressing issues to face. I don't think anybody in the American public is really interested in the president's sex life, Monica's sex life, or anybody else's sex life.''

Of Lewinsky's future, Ginsburg said, ``She'll go on with her life. It will take some time to repair the damage that has occurred to her.''

He also said that Lewinsky is willing to submit to a polygraph examination in exchange for complete immunity from prosecution. Ginsburg said Lewinsky would voluntarily take the test to prove the truthfulness of her account of a relationship with Clinton.

A new round of national polls confirmed that Clinton has surged in popularity since his State of the Union speech Tuesday. The recent polls all showed that vast majorities of Americans approve of the way Clinton is doing his job, even more than before the allegations of sex and cover-up were revealed.

A Washington Post poll showed 67 percent of Americans approving of Clinton's job performance. A Time/CNN poll put it at 68 percent; Newsweek at 70 percent; the Chicago Tribune at 72 percent.

``I'm getting the impression that the American public is tired of hearing about the president's sex life and that the American public really doesn't care one way or the other, given the job that he's doing in other quarters,'' Ginsburg said.

``There is other news out there, from Social Security to Iraq to Palestine to all sorts of things, and I think the American people have focused on the real issues.''

But there was another factor at work Sunday in deflating the scandal, namely the lack of testimony or evidence to back up the first rush of charges that Clinton may have lied under oath or urged Lewinsky to lie.

Foremost was Ginsburg's statement that Lewinsky is standing by her sworn statement given in the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones against Clinton. In that deposition, Lewinsky, 24, reportedly denied having an affair with Clinton.

That means that Lewinsky, the one person in this case who could directly accuse Clinton of an affair or accuse Clinton or his close friend, lawyer and lobbyist Vernon E. Jordan, of an attempted cover-up, isn't going to do it, at least not now.

Her problem is that she apparently told a friend in secretly taped talks that she had sex with the president and that he and Jordan wanted her to lie about it. Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel investigating Clinton in an inquiry that has been expanded from the Whitewater land deal to include the sex scandal, has the tapes and is threatening to prosecute Lewinsky for lying in her sworn statement unless she talks.

Ginsburg's efforts to win immunity from prosecution for Lewinsky have failed so far. He said Lewinsky would return to her native Los Angeles this week to spend time with her father.

``She has been in a prison cell, albeit at the Watergate Apartments, but nevertheless unable to go out for a walk,'' Ginsburg said of the throng of reporters camped outside her apartment building.

``I've got to try to give her just a little bit of fresh air, and I'm acting a little bit like one of those pressure cookers, letting a little, tiny bit of steam off so she can at least feel like someone's on her side,'' he said on Fox.

The continuing investigation still could produce evidence of an affair or attempted cover-up. In that case, said Ginsburg, the scandal would heat up again and Americans would have to re-evaluate their thinking.

``That's something the American public will have to handle if, in fact, they determine that he's lying,'' he said.

And, in one of the last signals that the scandal was slipping into a new, less frantic phase, Ginsburg said his whirlwind tour of five Sunday talk shows would be his last for a while.

``This is it, folks, this is my last round of Sunday shows,'' he said on Fox. ``This thing has gotten out of hand. We are now at a place where commentators are interviewing commentators. It's enough. Until something breaks, I'm not going to be on the air again.''

SUNDAY'S DEVELOPMENTS

Sunday's developments in the controversy involving President Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky:

Lewinsky's attorney, William Ginsburg, shuttled among five TV talk shows defending his client. He predicted the crisis would ``go away'' and that Clinton's presidency would survive.

Lewinsky made plans to travel to California to see her father, aiming to leave in the next three days. Ginsburg described her as ``having fits'' at being cooped up in her Watergate apartment but predicted she would be fine once the controversy passes.

Ginsburg said Lewinsky is willing to submit to a polygraph examination in exchange for complete immunity from prosecution.

Independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who is investigating the Lewinsky matter, was back at work in his office, but talks with Lewinsky's lawyers over an immunity deal were stalled, according to Ginsburg.

Clinton kept out of the public eye during a weekend retreat to Camp David with his daughter, Chelsea, who was home from college for the weekend.

First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton continued her travel break from Washington with a sightseeing tour of eastern Switzerland.

SOURCE: Daily News Wire Services

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, box

PHOTO (1--Color) Attorney William Ginsburg talks about allegations.

(2) First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton smiles as she waves to the crowd in Davos, Switzerland. The president was at Camp David.

Associated Press 

Box: Sunday's developments (see text)