Hometown newspaper calls for Condit to resign; demonstrators protest at his office

By ALEXA HAUSSLER The Associated Press 8/25/01 5:23 PM

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- The largest newspaper in Congressman Gary Condit's home district has repeated its call for his resignation following his nationally televised interview.

"After months of watching him stall and stonewall, Condit's weasel-like performance on Thursday was terribly disappointing," says an editorial published Friday in the Modesto Bee, the day after Condit's interview with ABC's Connie Chung.

Meanwhile, two dozen protesters gathered outside Condit's office in Modesto at lunchtime Saturday, shouting for him to step down.

"If he can cheat on his own commitment to his family, how's he going to treat the community?" said housewife Christine Lagow. "Especially now, after his interview, there's even more support for him to resign than there ever was before."

The Bee and several other California newspapers earlier this month called for Condit's resignation because of his silence over the relationship with missing Washington, D.C., intern Chandra Levy.

Friday's editorial echoed a chorus of negative reviews following the Democrat's highly anticipated interview. From California to Capitol Hill, he was criticized for his sometimes evasive answers to Chung's questions and his lack of an apology to voters or Levy's parents.

"Instead of accepting responsibility and apologizing for this shameful conduct. Condit clung to his strategy of spin and denial," the editorial said.

In an interview posted on Newsweek's Web site Friday, Condit tried to repair the damage done by Thursday's television appearance.

"I sat there the whole time with Connie Chung waiting for her ask me something other than a sex question," said Condit, who acknowledged having a close relationship with the Bureau of Prisons intern but sidestepped questions about its nature.

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2001

Answers

So Condit was acting on Abbe Lowell's advice.

NYPost

TEAM CONDIT'S INFIGHTING

By NILES LATHEM, EDMUND NEWTON, and ANDY GELLER

August 26, 2001 -- Rep. Gary Condit's advisers were so deeply divided on how he should handle his interview with Connie Chung that they had major meltdowns, The Post has learned.

Ultimately, Condit's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, won out - and is now being blamed for the public-relations disaster that resulted.

Sources close to Condit said yesterday the advisers were split into two camps.

In one, there was Condit's chief of staff, Mike Lynch, and Richie Ross, a Sacramento-based political consultant.

They argued that the California congressman should appear contrite and apologize for his conduct.

In the other was Lowell.

He favored a more in-your-face approach, in which Condit would not directly answer whether he had an affair with Chandra Levy and would accuse her family of being unfair to him.

To the lawyer, Condit's main job was to convince viewers that he had nothing to do with the disappearance of the 24-year-old Washington intern. All other issues were either irrelevant or a media concoction.

Condit, who spent most of the time during the interview incredibly angry at the media, was also reluctant to apologize.

The debate over the strategy grew so heated that there were screaming matches between Lowell and Ross.

"There were several meltdowns in the days leading up to the interview," one insider said.

Ultimately, Lowell won out and is being slammed for what many image-makers consider a catastrophe.

"It was a public-relations disaster," said Nancy Snow, a political analyst at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Lanny Davis, who spun for the Clinton White House during its campaign-finance scandals, agreed.

"You have to wonder that if that's the way you're going to handle yourself, why you even bothered to do the interview in the first place," he said.

The result is that Condit and Lowell are now doing damage control.

In a Newsweek interview, Condit complained that ABC's Chung asked him so many questions about an affair that he didn't have time to express how "saddened and heartbroken" he is over Levy's disappearance.

"I'm not a sappy guy," but, "I hurt inside," he said.

Lowell told reporters prime time isn't the right place to make a confession.

"I don't think Congressman Condit, nor I, nor a bunch of people believe that prime time is a church and Connie Chung or any other anchor is a priest and this is the place for a confessional," he said.

Meanwhile, about 30 people staged a demonstration outside Condit's district office in Modesto, Calif. They carried flags and signs urging passing motorists to honk if they favor Condit's resignation.

-- Anonymous, August 26, 2001