Here's what I remember of the Lewinsky scandal: The Republicans in Congress did a terrible job of moving the case forward. They wanted to wait until after the election to do anything, so they could milk it for several months in an effort to get more seats in Congress. It backfired, and they then backed down. The only one on the Republican side that I was impressed with at the time was Lindsey Graham. He has since gone on to become Senator, while man others have dropped out completely.
I don't care one way or another about this story, but I'd like to see it followed up by the media with the same zeal as the ridiculous National Guard non-story.
My recollection of 1998 is that the Republicans in Congress would have preferred for the whole problem of the Clinton scandals to go away (Kenneth Starr in his glacial manner was generating most of the pressure on Clinton), but Clinton brought on the impeachment crisis by his deliberately provocative responses to the Congressional questionnaire in November 1998 (after the 1998 elections).