AS ALWAYS WITH HILLARY...:

When Clinton finally admitted to the relationship after repeated denials, Hillary  Clinton defended her husband in a phone call with Blair. She said her husband had made a mistake by fooling around with the "narcissistic loony toon" Lewinsky, but was driven to it in part by his political adversaries, the loneliness of the presidency, and her own failures as a wife.

She told Blair that the affair did not include sex "within any real meaning" of the term and noted President Clinton "tried to manage" Monica after they broke up but things spiraled "beyond control."

Blair described the contents of the Sept. 9, 1998, phone call in a journal entry.

"[Hillary] is not trying to excuse [Bill Clinton]; it was a huge personal lapse. And she is not taking responsibility for it," Blair wrote.

"But, she does say this to put his actions in context. Ever since he took office they've been going thru personal tragedy ([the death of] Vince [Foster], her dad, his mom) and immediately all the ugly forces started making up hateful things about them, pounding on them."

"They adopted strategy, public strategy, of acting as tho it didn't bother them; had to. [Hillary] didn't realize toll it was taking on him," Blair continued. "She thinks she was not smart enough, not sensitive enough, not free enough of her own concerns and struggles to realize the price he was paying."

Hillary Clinton told Blair she had received "a letter from a psychologist who does family therapy and sexual infidelity problems," who told the Yale Law School graduate, "most men with fidelity problems [were] raised by two women and felt conflicted between them."

The psychologist suggested that Bill's infidelity had its roots in his childhood.

"He'd read about Bill's bio; grandmother despised [Bill's mother] Virginia, tried to get custody of Bill; Bill adored by his mother, but she left him, etc. etc."

In her conversations with Blair, the first lady gave her husband credit for trying to end the affair with Lewinsky, and said he did not take advantage of his White House intern.

"It was a lapse, but she says to his credit he tried to break it off, tried to pull away, tried to manage someone who was clearly a 'narcissistic loony toon'; but it was beyond control," wrote Blair.

"HRC insists, no matter what people say, it was gross inappropriate behavior but it was consensual (was not a power relationship) and was not sex within any real meaning (standup, liedown, oral, etc.) of the term."

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