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CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, July 9, 2001

by William Hamilton, Ph.D.

From Democrat to right-wing conservative

The disappearance of federal government intern, Chandra Levy, has been at the top of the news for several weeks. Hopefully, she is still alive and her mysterious disappearance will have a satisfactory ending.

Meanwhile, those of us who are sensitive to media bias are being treated to another example of how the mainstream media deal with political figures. Whether or not Congressman Gary Condit (D) of California figures in the Levy mystery remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is media bias in dealing with Congressman Condit.

When the story of Miss Levy’s disappearance and the possible tie-in to Congressman Condit first broke, there was a passing reference that Mr. Condit is a member of the Democrat Party. Interestingly, for weeks now, Mr. Condit’s political affiliation has been dropped from the story. He is just Congressman Gary Condit. Period.

But, as it became more apparent that Mr. Condit knew a lot more about Chandra Levy than he was willing to admit, CNN News and the other organs of the Left, began to characterize Congressman Condit as a “right-wing, conservative Democrat from a heavily right-wing congressional district surrounding Modesto, California.”

Once CNN News turned on him, this observer knew Mr. Condit was in deep do-do. Unable to divest Congressman Condit of his membership in the Democrat Party, CNN and the other members of our nation’s left-leaning group-think media, decided to abandon him altogether by painting him (and those who elected him to Congress over and over again) as some sort of right-wing kooks.

You see, proper members of the vast left-wing conspiracy (Bill Clinton excepted) do not have sexual relations with young interns on their first venture away from their parents into the big world of Washington politics. Proper members would regard the presence of young women in federal offices as part of a sacred trust between elected officials and the parents of these young women. Again, Bill Clinton is the exception because he, like Ted Kennedy, has done so much for women. Right, Mary Jo? Right, Monica and countless others?

So, this Congressman from Modesto, California, of whom the nation had, hitherto, known nothing, must be trashed by making him to appear – not as a member of the “regular” Democrat Party – but so far to the right that he probably celebrates Hitler’s birthday.

The real problem with Congressman Condit is that he is a cad. He is a married man who, according to a half-dozen women who have now come forward, has no regard for his marriage vows. Instead of making a clean breast of things at the outset and telling the D.C. police all he knew about Miss Levy -- to include her frequent overnight stays in his Washington apartment -- he chose to deal with the matter through his press aids and he did not tell all he knew right up front.

Whether or not Congressman Condit’s coy behavior has impeded a missing person’s investigation or what may become a criminal investigation remains to be seen. Suffice it to say, Mr. Condit was less than helpful to the D.C. police.

In my early teens, this observer served several terms as a page in the Oklahoma Legislature. If anyone had just fallen off the turnip truck in the big city, I was the one. But, I am proud to say no elected or appointed official ever tried to take advantage of my naiveté in any way.

We didn’t have female pages back then. But I would like to think that the state legislators of my time would have been too chivalrous to take advantage of starry-eyed female interns or pages.

Obviously, Congressman Gary Condit, is working at something other than the jobs he was sent to Congress to do. Even those “right-wing, conservative radicals” in Modesto will figure that out and probably send someone to Congress who wants to look after their affairs instead of his own.

William Hamilton is a nationally syndicated columnist and featured commentator for USA Today.