Both inquiries are trying to determine whether anyone sought to impede the long-running Whitewater investigations by Congress, by the independent counsel and by savings and loan regulators.

The length, expense, and results of the greater Whitewater investigations turned much of the public against the Independent Counsel mechanism.

Personal attacks on President Clinton or Mrs. Clinton or discussion of the ongoing Whitewater investigation would be "off-limits," the memo said.

Whether assistance from Mr. McDougal would ultimately change the course of the long-running Whitewater investigation is far from clear.

The ongoing Whitewater investigation, despite Fiske's findings, was about undermining the progressive agenda by any means.

James Carville promised "war" when Prosecutor Starr entered the Monica phase of his perpetual Whitewater investigation.

The allegations with respect to Mr. Jordan and the job search were similar to ones already under review in the ongoing Whitewater investigation.

Ms. McDougal's trial, in its fifth week, is one of the remaining loose ends in the once-sprawling Whitewater investigation, now evidently winding down.

The independent counsel, Kenneth W. Starr, said in a Washington news conference that he was "encouraged" by the verdict, the first in the 30-month-old Whitewater investigation, which remains open.

The tip was not mentioned in the Starr report, though the information revived a moribund Whitewater investigation that would not have produced, it now seems, an impeachment referral to Congress.