Word: conditions
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Gary Condit-Chandra Levy case represents a sinister flowering of Meg Greenfield's high school theory...
...Condit-Levy sexual affair-which the Congressman has at last admitted, confirming what the audience already knew and bringing this miniseries-in-progress up to date-savored of many of those high school touches that Greenfield noticed. With Chandra's disappearance, the affair has taken on a contemporary American adolescent's dimension of the dangerous, brushing up against evil possibilities (think of Colombine and other shootings, for example) that would have seemed impossible when I was a high school student in Washington years...
...that regard, I think Representative Condit's behavior perhaps should not be understood too quickly. On the surface, it looks as if Condit has been guilty of disastrously bad public relations-concealing himself for so long from the press, seeming evasive, looking guilty etc etc. But think, if only for the sake of speculation: a deftly sinister and manipulative Machiavellian, if he were guilty of something far worse than adultery, might behave exactly as Condit has. That is, he might use an apparent ineptness at public relations, combined with grudging revelation of the affair with an intern (tacky, but comparatively...
...Like would-be starlets in Hollywood, interns come to Washington with big dreams and a hunger to be noticed. Monica's neediness and naivete weren't an aberration. As Clinton was, Condit could be a politician capable of surviving the infatuation of an intern getting out of hand--if that's what happened. Condit is a retail guy in his home district, so sensitive to his constituents' needs that he helps them find apartments in D.C. Unable to say no, he had as many as 10 interns on staff one summer. A workhorse on the Agriculture Committee, he serves...
...Most of the things folks in Washington fight over are trivial; we don't know what to do when we come up against a matter of life and death. If Chandra was a good friend, wouldn't Condit be more stricken? Isn't he betraying whatever friendship they had by not volunteering every detail about their relationship? The only way his conduct makes sense is if he's slavishly heeding the advice of all criminal attorneys: say nothing, for it could be used against you. But that makes him look guilty and hardhearted, whether...