FIRST LADY OFFERS LOOK AT BATTLE PLANS.

Byline: Todd S. Purdum The New York Times

With lawyerly precision, flashes of humor and a determined resolve, Hillary Rodham Clinton has popped up all over the news in the past week, once again rebutting, dismissing, explaining and defending her role in the Whitewater and White House travel office affairs.

On "20-20" and the "Today" program, National Public Radio and interviews with prominent newspapers, the first lady repeatedly has vowed to "do whatever it takes" to put to rest lingering questions and controversies about her candor, including testifying before the Senate committee investigating Whitewater.

Clinton has long been a lightning rod for criticism, and it is impossible to gauge the results of her latest efforts to reintroduce herself to the American public as her husband's re-election campaign heats up and her ratings slide. But the short-term effect has been to lay out the first lady's side of the story in prominent, prime-time detail after weeks of mounting Republican criticism and embarrassing disclosures.

"I will look at anything," the first lady said on "Today" on Tuesday morning, echoing comments in recent days in which she has edged closer to offering to testify before the Senate Whitewater committee. "Nobody wants this over with more than I do." But she added, "I think it would be like having your teeth drilled."

"I mean, I can't imagine anything worse, you know, especially since you have no idea what the questions are. I mean, if I knew that they were going to ask me about 'x' and 'y', that would be fine. But these people think they can come out of left field, or more likely right field, and ask me anything. So it's not going to be a very easy experience for anyone, but I will do whatever it takes."

Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato, the New York Republican who heads the committee, has been notably reluctant so far to compel the first lady's testimony, and the White House says she has not yet volunteered it, much less sought to negotiate terms.

But Clinton has given a spate of recent interviews, carefully granted to reporters who do not regularly cover the White House or Whitewater and intended to promote her new book on children's issues, "It Takes a Village." She made the first public appearance on behalf of the book Tuesday in Little Rock, Ark.

In the interviews Clinton has gone out of her way to put her spin on a few x's and y's of her own. Her arguments remain at some variance with the past accounts of other administration officials and government investigators.

Over and over, Clinton has said she cannot understand why copies of long-sought billing records from her old Little Rock law firm were discovered only recently in a storage area of the White House residence by an assistant. But she insists she is glad the files were found because they prove the truth of her earlier assertions that her work in the 1980s for the failing Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan was limited in time and scope. Congressional investigators dispute this, suggesting the records show that her work for Madison, which was owned by the Clintons' partner in the Whitewater land venture, was substantial.

Again and again, Clinton has said that she never urged that employees of the travel office be dismissed or that any particular action be taken, only that she had shared with White House officials her concerns about reports of financial mismanagement in the office. Seven employees of the office were dismissed abruptly in 1993 and were replaced with Clinton associates from Arkansas.

She explains a 1993 memo from David Watkins, a former White House aide, that asserts that the first lady "desired action" on the travel office by saying that she has always "dealt with people in a very direct way" and that "the mere expression of concern could be, I guess, taken to mean something more."

Finally, Clinton repeatedly has suggested that a report prepared for the Resolution Trust Corp., whose findings were made public last month, had vindicated the Clintons by supporting their assertion that they were passive investors who lost money in the Whitewater investment and that "we never, ever took any kind of money whatsoever from Madison Savings & Loan."

In fact, the report, which states that it was not meant to exonerate or charge anyone, concluded that it was impossible to determine whether money from Madison had gone to support the Whitewater venture because a number of records were missing. It recommended against pursuing a civil suit against the Clintons to recover Madison funds on the grounds that the litigation would cost more than it was likely to recover.

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(color) Supporters greet Hillary Rodham Clinton in Little Rock, Ark., as she arrives Tuesday on a tour to promote her book. Associated Press