[OG explanation: yeah, I know, I know, enough Condit already. (Believe me I'm posting only about one percent of what's available out there!) But this is a significant revelation--his wife dictated the restrictions? His daughter was involved too? This is a surprise. I was under the impression Mrs. Condit was an emotionally-battered wife who went along with anything Condit did. I wonder if denying the Smith affair was her idea too.]

NYPost

CONDIT'S FAMILY CALLED SHOTS ON TV INTERVIEW

By STEVE DUNLEAVY

August 27, 2001 -- TV STAR Connie Chung yesterday said Gary Condit's family - not any high-priced handler - clearly called the shots in the way the congressman committed political suicide on her show.

"The family said what he could say. Despite how much I pushed, he could only say what the family agreed upon," Connie told me.

"His wife, Caroline, and his daughter, Cadee, were very involved in the way he looked. I don't believe his handlers had much input.

"Caroline was choosing the tie he was going to wear. Cadee kept on looking at the monitor [to see] how we were going to shoot the congressman on camera.

"She [Cadee] even asked - and we went along with it - that some flowers be moved into the shot.

"When I got to the hard question of his relationship with Chandra, no matter how hard I pressed, I realized he only uttered what he thought he could utter under guidelines from his family," Chung added.

"It was consistent with his constituents' letter - and his family, not his handlers, would not let him go any further.

"Frankly, I was incredulous. He didn't give all, which some observers perhaps believe has put him in a deeper hole than he once was."

After the interview, on ABC's "PrimeTime Thursday," was over, Connie got another surprise.

"He jumped out of his chair and went straight to lawyer, Abbe Lowell, but the mike was still attached to him," she said.

"Afterward, he came back, shook my hand, and said, 'I'm not sure I should thank you.'"

Abbe Lowell, Condit's $500-an-hour attorney, looked like a stunned mullet on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday as he tried to explain away Condit's political Bay of Pigs.

Marina Ein, Condit's hot-shot public-relations guru, was scarcer than hen's teeth.

And there was a good reason. Lowell and Ein, both bright bulbs, had very little to do with Condit's suicidal script.

David Gergen, the aviation fuel in President Ronald Reagan's rocket, said in flat street terms:

"The interview with Connie Chung was very helpful here - to show the world he's a jerk."

"You get the thought that he blames Connie Chung because he didn't get enough time to tell his story. He went along with the rules . . . He should salvage his honor by resigning now.

"Why they [his handlers] put him on air is beyond belief, if that is what he was going to say."

Condit is more and more looking like a bodyguard for Slobodan Milosevic, who more and more has just as much credibility.

Lanny Davis, the man who tried to pick up the broken glass after Bill Clinton smashed the chandelier, said yesterday on CNN:

"I cannot imagine, as a political adviser, being in the same room as Gary Condit.

"That is, unless I was convinced he was going to tell everything. Otherwise, I would have told him you are going to get killed tonight [on television]."

Connie's insight into Condit is valuable when it comes down to basic manhood . . . Don't let's start talking about sexual morality, for crying out loud.

This rodent now wants to confab with his family. Chandra Levy is probably history, but now, Condit wants to do the family thing with his wife, son and daughter to scrub away his lies.

Former Attorney General Richard Thornberg said yesterday that Condit's behavior had been an insult to the Levy family.

Davis said that Condit "was reading from the '60 Minutes' script, when Clinton was interviewed."

"The script wasn't applicable here."

Damn right. Monica Lewinsky is alive and well. Chandra? God have mercy on her soul

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001