STATE OF THE PRESIDENCY -- TOUGH TIMES; FIRST LADY COMES OUT SWINGING OVER CRISIS.

Byline: Francis X. Clines The New York Times

Delivering a blistering White House counterattack, Hillary Rodham Clinton charged on Tuesday that the investigation against the president by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr is part of a ``vast right-wing conspiracy'' dedicated to destroying his presidency.

``It's not just one person; it's an entire operation,'' the first lady contended as she offered the first lengthy remarks from either of the Clintons in denial of accusations that the president had an affair with a White House intern and sought to have her lie about it.

She offered no new information in defense of her husband, saying his relationship with Monica Lewinsky will be explained ``as time goes by.'' But she singled out Starr, the Whitewater investigator who has taken on the new inquiry, as ``a politically motivated prosecutor who is allied with the right-wing opponents of my husband.''

The first lady's charge was flatly rejected by Starr. ``That is nonsense,'' said the prosecutor, who was busy Tuesday with grand jury proceedings and other aspects of the fast-growing inquiry into the president's behavior. ``Our current investigation began when we received credible evidence of serious federal crimes.''

He emphasized that Attorney General Janet Reno, a Clinton appointee, had assented to his taking on the inquiry.

Hillary Clinton signaled the administration's readiness to fight back as she began the critical day of her husband's State of the Union message with a spirited defense of his conduct on national television and finished it at stage center, resilient and combative, as she applauded from the Capitol gallery.

``It's just a very unfortunate turn of events that we are using the criminal justice system to try to achieve political ends in this country,'' she declared in an interview on NBC's ``Today'' show.

Her remarks were the strongest indication yet that the Clintons hope to fight the investigation as merely the latest aspect of an alleged long-running political conspiracy dating even earlier than the first Whitewater charges. White House strategists were reported by one of the president's defenders as assembling right-wing ``flow charts'' in mapping their counteroffensive.

The first lady's charge was rejected not only by conservative political figures but also by the Los Angeles attorney for Lewinsky. ``I can tell you this is no right-wing conspiracy or Zionist conspiracy or anything like that,'' William Ginsburg volunteered in an interview without being asked about the allegation.

The first lady referred repeatedly in her remarks to ``this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president.''

She included in the conspiracy the special three-judge panel that oversees the independent counsel and the two conservative Republican senators from North Carolina, Lauch Faircloth and Jesse Helms, charging they had influenced the panel. She also cited the Rev. Jerry Falwell, a conservative televangelist, in noting assorted allegations, even murder, that have been circulated the past six years by presidential critics.

Reminded that Reno had first agreed to the inquiry by Starr, Hillary Clinton replied, ``Well, of course she (did), because she doesn't want to appear as though she's interfering with the investigation.''

Asked whether the president had told her ``the exact nature of the relationship'' between the president and Lewinsky, she replied, ``Well, we've talked at great length, and I think as this matter unfolds, the entire country will have more information.''

But she offered no further details, complaining of a ``feeding frenzy'' and advising the nation, ``Be patient, take a deep breath and the truth will come out.''

Asked whether the president might have given Lewinsky gifts, as has been reported, the first lady replied, ``I think it's possible, of course.'' But she said this was because the president is ``an extremely generous person to people he knows, to strangers, to anybody who is around him.''

The charge of a political plot drew the scorn of John Whitehead, head of the Rutherford Institute, the conservative legal-rights organization that is subsidizing Paula Jones' sexual-misconduct civil suit against Clinton.

``What right-wing conspiracy?'' Whitehead demanded. ``Show us the facts. Who conspired, and where?''

While not discussing details of what the president had told her, the first lady was asked whether her husband might, if asked, once again admit to causing further ``pain'' in their marriage, as he put it in the 1992 campaign.

``No, absolutely not,'' she replied, adding firmly, ``And he shouldn't.'' She insisted that the current allegations are the work of ``malicious and evil-minded'' political opponents trying ``to undo the results of two elections.''

``The president has denied these allegations on all counts, unequivocally,'' she said. ``And we'll see how this plays out.''

Asked how grave the charges are, the first lady replied, ``If all that were proven true, I think that would be a very serious offense.'' But she insisted, ``That is not going to be proven true.'' She maintained that the suspicions about her husband are baseless - ``part of the unfortunate, mean-spirited give-and-take of American politics right now.''

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PHOTO (color) First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and ``Today'' co-host Matt Lauer pause Tuesday on the set of the show in New York.

Associated Press