We all know her name and have seen her on the rope line, her love-sick eyes peaking out at the Leader of the Free World from under that tacky beret.

We never knew the person — and there is a person underneath that hat.

Monica Lewinsky’s video-taped deposition was played on the Senate floor Saturday.

Of course, the House managers who conducted the proceedings couldn’t resist a gossipy question or two about how Ms. Lewinsky really felt about the “Big Creep.”

Like the grand jury testimony last summer, Monica had to answer questions about her relationship that nobody should have to suffer.

And how did Monica fare against the big bad Republicans?

Outstanding.

She answered every question, and her composure never faltered.

Ms. Lewinsky proved that she may be as good of a lawyer as her former paramour.

Her cagey responses were obviously frustrating the Republican managers who wanted her to drop a bombshell about her relationship with the president.

And she didn’t budge. “He didn’t ask me to lie,” she said. “He didn’t promise a job,” she repeated.

Doesn’t exactly sound like obstruction of justice, does it?

Since Clinton’s acquittal is about as likely as his giving up Big Macs, it was an opportunity for a woman who gets lampooned on late-night television every evening to show her strength.

The videotaped deposition was Lewinsky’s first chance to prove to the American public that she isn’t just some lovesick, spoiled, Beverly Hills brat looking to make a name for herself by seducing the president.

She came off as an intelligent, strained and incredibly vulnerable woman who is probably wondering what the hell she was thinking two years ago.

Witnesses weren’t needed in the first place. The line Lewinsky and Clinton confidantes Vernon Jordan and Sidney Blumenthal seemed to use the most was “As I said in my grand jury deposition.”

So Monica didn’t really need to testify for what seems like the hundredth time.

But for her public relations image, nothing could have been better.