President Clinton says that he does not regard his impeachment over his affair with Ms Monica Lewinsky as "some great badge of shame". He says he felt "honoured" that the impeachment, which resulted in his acquittal on the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, gave him a chance to defend the Constitution.
In an interview with a CBS news programme, Mr Clinton said that Americans clearly saw that driving the impeachment was an attempt by the Republican Congressional leadership to undermine the good works of his presidency.
"Those that did not agree with what I had done and were furious that it had worked and that the country was doing well, and attempted to use what should have been a constitutional and legal process for political ends, did not prevail," he told the interviewer, Mr Don Rather. "But I do not regard this impeachment vote as some great badge of shame. I do not. I do not believe it was warranted and I don't think it was right."
President Clinton said he never thought about resigning. "I would never have legitimised what I believe is horribly wrong with what has occurred here over the last four or five years. So it never crossed my mind. I just prayed about it."
Mr Clinton said he does not have lingering animosity against those who drove the impeachment process forward. "I don't wake up every day mad at those people. Any moment I spend full of anger and bitterness is a moment I am robbing from my wife or from my daughter or from my country or from my friends."
Meanwhile, the investigation by the Independent Counsel, Mr Ken Starr, into the Lewinsky affair has cost at least $6 million. Figures released by the General Accounting Office show that Mr Starr's wider investigation into the so-called Whitewater matter is heading to be the most expensive independent counsel inquiry ever.
The Whitewater inquiry, which also involves Mrs Hillary Clinton, has cost almost $40 million since Mr Starr took it over in August, 1994. His predecessor, Mr Robert Fiske, had already spent $6 million on the inquiry into the failed property development scheme in Arkansas in which the Clintons had invested.