Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Talkback Live

Does Congressman Condit's Letter Answer Your Questions?

Aired August 23, 2001 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BOBBIE BATTISTA, HOST: What is Congressman Gary Condit trying to say in his letter to his constituents?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE DOYLE, "MODESTO BEE": Pin the blame on the media. The assertion of full cooperation with the police. The carving of a moat around his private life. The use of constructive ambiguity with references to not being perfect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BATTISTA: He says he hopes his television interview tonight will answer your questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just wonder why he waited so long to admit that he had any -- that he had an affair with her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gary, why in the world did you wait almost a month even say anything. You know, a ladies life is in the balance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would just ask him why he had to be such an embarrassment to his family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BATTISTA: What's your read on Condit's letter? And does it answer your questions?

Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. Welcome to TALKBACK LIVE.

Congressman Gary Condit has mailed out some 200,000, three-page letters to constituents in California. The letter follows months of silence following the disappearance of former intern Chandra Levy and anticipates a round of media interviews. Since much of our show will be referencing it, we thought you should hear what the letter says before we begin.

"Dear friends and neighbors, Chandra Levy has been missing for nearly four months. I'm sorry that the pain the Levy family and Chandra's friends are feeling has grown worse with each passing day.

"When Chandra's dad called me to tell me she was missing, he asked for my help. I contacted the police to see if a reward fund would help find her. They said it would, so I started one.

"Since that day, and every day since, I have cooperated and worked with law enforcement to find Chandra. I invited the police to my apartment and asked the FBI to help.

"Despite my best attempts to help the police find Chandra, some in the media have criticized me for remaining 'silent.'

"I have not been silent with those in charge of finding Chandra.

"I have answered every single question asked by the police and FBI.

"When tabloids turned the tragedy of Chandra's disappearance into a spectacle and rumors were reported as facts, I decided that I would not discuss my private life in the media.

"Some suggest that not talking with the media could mean I had something to do with Chandra's disappearance. I did not. I pray that she has not met the same fate as the other young women who have disappeared from the same neighborhood.

"I will be interviewed on television and hopefully I will be able to answer questions that help people understand.

"It is not something that I look forward to. But things have gone on long enough.

"Before speaking to the media, I wanted to write to write to you, I have known so many of you for a long time. You know me to be hard working, committed to our issues and dedicated to my community and my family. I hope you also will understand that I am not perfect and have made my share of mistakes.

"For 30 years as a local mayor, county supervisor, state assemblyman and congressman, thousands of people have come to me with their personal problems.

"A son in trouble, a mother in a nursing home, a job that was lost, a farm going broke, a mortgage that couldn't be paid.

"And each time, people trusted that I would treat their problems with care.

"I hope our relationship is strong enough to endure all of this. "For now, I want my work in Congress to improve our communities. Please know that you can still bring me your concerns and your problems.

"Thank you for the kindness you have shown Carolyn and my family.

"Sincerely, Gary Condit."

As we continue here, you are looking at a live shot at the ranch at Modesto, California where the interview with Congressman Condit and ABC's Connie Chung is taking place, or about it take place.

Our CNN's Bob Franken is out there, and Bob will join us in just a few minute with further details on that.

Now that you've heard the letter, let's talk a little bit. Joining us from Condit's home district of Modesto, California, is Dave Thomas. He's a libertarian radio talk show host at KFIV.

Dave, thank you for joining us.

DAVE THOMAS, KFIV RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Thank you.

BATTISTA: Now that the letter is out, how is it going over with folks out there?

THOMAS: I guess I would say that we waited all of this time to find out he's not perfect.

I mean, my callers this morning, were real, real unhappy. It went -- I had one modestly favorable call, just one. The rest were between angry and really seriously angry.

BATTISTA: In the interest of fairness, should we say or should I ask you whether most of your listeners are Republican?

THOMAS: Well, from the people who communicate with me, it's about 40 percent pro-Condit, 60 percent anti over the past two months. We're -- you know, I don't ask them if they are Republicans or Democrats. I would suppose that we probably have more conservative people. But we have conservative Democrats here as well.

BATTISTA: What do you think, or what do your listeners think is missing from that letter?

THOMAS: Many things. There's no apology. That's -- that's so sad that he has no ability to feel remorse. He has no feeling for what the Levys are going through. He didn't explain it in any way why he has been silent. He hasn't told us what he's been hiding. He's obviously still hiding something. This answer, this is not an answer; this is a political remark.

BATTISTA: Yes, the only, the only reference to the word, I am sorry, is that "I am sorry that the pain that the Levy family and Chandra's feeling has grown worse each day." So it's really more of a commiseration, not even an apology. THOMAS: Not one of my listeners even remotely feels that there is an apology there.

BATTISTA: Do they feel then that the letter focused well, pretty much on him and not on Chandra?

THOMAS: That really doesn't really pay interest on it, does it? It was a me, me, me. In fact my secretary counted 22 "I" words.

BATTISTA: If you live out in the Modesto area and you're wondering whether or not you should vote for Congressman Condit again, do think this letter will do the trick one way or the other?

THOMAS: You want my opinion on that?

BATTISTA: Yes.

THOMAS: I'm pretty biased. I was expecting something far different. As a matter of fact, I would say that his supporters for -- this is the letter that his supporters feared he would write and the letter that his detractors predicted he would write. This is classic Condit. It's arrogant. It's wrong.

BATTISTA: Let me get a little reaction from our audience, because they all have a copy of the letter; they've have been reading it for a while.

Jean, go ahead.

JEAN: Well, that's exactly my view. I felt that, if he really cared about this, he might have written a different kind of letter, a letter that really expressed his sincere concern for the situation and not just for his position as a congressman.

BATTISTA: And I have a couple of messages here from our message board. "The Levy' daughter was missing. They needed to know if he had any information about her, and he didn't give them the information that they needed. He gave them lies. They were distraught, and he ignored their need for the truth."

Margie in Ontario says, "I've never seen so much dissecting of a letter in all my life. What did everyone want the man to do? Brag about having an affair. I do not feel he is involved in any way in Chandra's disappearance. Leave the poor fellow alone."

And, Ian, you agree?

IAN: Yes, definitely. This letter is the fine, I think. He's been what, four police interviews. You have policeman scouring D.C. parks turning over blazes of grass. They found absolutely nothing. Fine, he had an affair. That makes him a suspect, but the police have cleared him. The media just wants to vilify him. He's a big public figure. If he was just a regular average guy, what ratings would Connie Chung get tonight? It wouldn't even be on TV?

BATTISTA: You brought up the issue of the media, so did the Congressman in the letter. Dave, were you surprised? I think that a lot of people predicted that he was going to have something to say about the media in this letter.

THOMAS: Well, he blames his silence on the media. That's absurd. You know, when you look at this letter from the perspective of somebody who lives in the District, there's no humanity in here. It's impossible to me. Why didn't he apologize to his wife? How does his wife deal with this? He needs to say something like a human being. He needs to stand up like a man. This is a letter that says, I've done nothing wrong.

And you know, I have to tell you something, here, most of us differentiate between answers to questions and honest answers to questions. We don't think that waiting three times or three interviews to tell the police that he actually had an interview is in any way appropriate.

Let me break away for just a minute and take you to another part of Modesto, where CNN's Bob Franken is for an update on what is happening with the interview with ABC -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Bobbie, this is the ranch of Paul Walnut Grove. Over my shoulder -- I don't know if you can see the shot -- there is a large satellite dish, an uplink as we call it in the business. That is where the ABC interview that is being conducted by Connie Chung will be conducted with Congressman Gary Condit. Condit has apparently not arrived yet.

It's an interview, as we know, that's going to be taped live and then played on ABC News this evening. The ranch is owned by Paul Warda, who is an old friend of Congressman Gary Condit. He's one of his political mentors. He spent many years in the health care business, was the vice president of a health care system. Now he runs this Walnut Grove Walnut Ranch, as it's called, and this is the area where they're going to do the interview.

Now, this has all evolved in the last night. About two or three nights ago, according to Warda, he got a call from an adviser of Condit -- not Condit himself, but he doesn't want to name the adviser -- asking if this would be OK to use. They were trying to avoid what the advisers have called a media circus, tried to keep the location secret, which it has been up until this moment. In any case, Warda said he got call back the next night, or maybe the night after that, saying this is where we would like to do it. It's an operation that has been conducted in strict secrecy. Nobody has made any announcements where this interview would be conducted.

Also out here, we believe, will be an interview done with a station that is among the CNN's affiliates, KOVR. It's probably going to be done also here for broadcast tonight locally. There are other interviews ahead. There are interviews by probably two local newspapers, and also, of course, he's already done -- Condit has already done an interview with "People" magazine. That is going to be on the newsstands tomorrow. You'll see the picture on the cover of Congressman Condit with his wife, Carolyn. We're told that it is not probable, by the way, that Carolyn will participate in these interviews.

In addition, "Newsweek" magazine is conducting an interview tomorrow of Congressman Condit. This is all part of a coordinated media strategy, which has included a letter that was sent to all constituents today. Ironically, the letter was just delivered here a couple of minutes ago to this area. It's a letter which we, of course, have been reporting all day on CNN. The letter in which he does not apologize for the relationship with Chandra Levy. He does say that the important thing here is to find Chandra Levy, who, as we all know, has been missing for four months. But in that period, Congressman Condit has maintained a media silence. He's going to break it and he's going to break it here.

This, by the way, this ranch is about five miles from the home of Dr. Robert and Susan Levy, Chandra Levy's parents. It's going to be the site of Congressman Condit's first television interview -- Bobbie?

BATTISTA: All right, Bob, thank you. We'll continue here on TALKBACK LIVE with Dave Thomas out there in Modesto. Sam Greenfield will join us from New York as well. And just a little bit later, will the Congressman's colleagues be watching the interview tonight? Stay tuned. We'll ask CNN's Jonathan Karl about that and find out what the reaction is on Capitol Hill to that letter.

Right now take the TALKBACK LIVE on-line viewer vote at cnn.com/talkback, AOL keyword, CNN. Should Condit speak publicly to his constituents or is the letter sufficient? We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BATTISTA: All right, I've got tons of e-mails coming in here so I'll try to get to as many as I can. This first one says: "I don't think that he could have done any better with the letter. In fact, fake contrition would have been worse. It would probably anger the public even more."

The second one says: "Mr. Condit's letter is a masterpiece of sleight of hand. The actual timeline of his inaction and involvement is carefully and skillfully left vague."

Let's get the East Coast in on this mix. Joining us now from New York is Sam Greenfield, host of the "Sam Greenfield Show" on Newstalk, 1050 WEVD.

Sam, nice to see you.

SAM GREENFIELD, WEVD RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Nice to see you, Bobbie -- although I can't, but nice to see you.

BATTISTA: I know what you mean. Not that the Condit family cares what the folks in New York are saying, but what has been the reaction from your listeners to this letter?

GREENFIELD: The listeners on my station -- I listened to them this morning, I'm not on till later this afternoon -- but most of them kind of agree with me. I think he'd have been better off had he written nothing. I think the letter is awful. I think the letter doesn't say what it needed to say. The three sentences that no politician ever learns, "I did a bad thing, I'm sorry, I won't do it again." None of them ever say that. And that's what they should all say when they get caught like this. And they never do.

(LAUGHTER)

BATTISTA: Why is that so hard?

GREENFIELD: I did a bad thing, I'm sorry, I won't do it again.

BATTISTA: I know. Why is that so hard?

(LAUGHTER)

GREENFIELD: It's hard because they have ego. Their egos are monumental, and one of the reasons that so few other congresspeople are attacking this guy is, as we've learned in the past few years, none of these people -- not none, but very few of these people stand on a particularly high moral ground, so who are they to point a finger at him?

I would like to know from his constituents and from Dave, if he is doing a phenomenal job as a congressperson for the district. Does his personal behavior affect him in their decision to vote for him? He's been reelected by huge margins.

THOMAS: He's also run unopposed.

(LAUGHTER)

GREENFIELD: That's a huge margin.

BATTISTA: That'll do it.

GREENFIELD: Maybe that's not as big a margin as I thought, then.

THOMAS: Well, he's -- his staff are great people. I -- I feel very sorry for them as well. I mean, he has an extended family here, not just in blood relatives, but in people who have stood behind him through thick and thin, who have supported him, who have been with him when he was in the assembly and before that. His people are very good. They have done a marvelous job in constituent service. My family has been a beneficiary of that. I've never, ever wanted to have to say anything bad about Gary Condit. I never thought we'd ever be in this position. It's really sad.

GREENFIELD: I thought one of the worst things about this letter, the most despicable thing, is when he wrote: "She's disappeared, just like many other girls in that neighborhood." Oh, please! That was awful. It's like, well, it could have been any one of them. Not one that I slept with, but any one of them. It was awful. A terrible letter.

BATTISTA: What I think is kind of amazing, Dave, is that your district out there is pretty conservative. I mean, some would even say there's a little bit of a Bible Belt running through that area.

THOMAS: That's true.

BATTISTA: Yes, are we to believe that the folks out there were never aware -- and I'm not saying one way or the other whether it would matter to them -- but never aware of the congressman's personal indiscretions over all of these years?

THOMAS: Many people, maybe 20 percent of the electorate had heard rumors about Gary, but we are also very forgiving people. And rumors and innuendo we may not pay a lot of attention to that. We try to avoid it on my show. The rest of the story is, of course, that Gary portrayed an image of a family man, dedicated to his family, a churchgoer, son of a preacher, a teetotaler, which is I understand is not exactly the truth back in D.C.

So, I think that he did lead a double life and we did not know that.

BATTISTA: Let me get some more -- oh, I am sorry, Sam, go ahead.

GREENFIELD: No, I also think that it should be noted that Gary Condit was one of the few Democratic congressman who wagged a -- finger at Bill Clinton over his behavior, which really makes his behavior now even more egregious to me.

I mean if you were cheating on your wife and Clinton did what he did, wouldn't you kind of keep quiet? Wouldn't you want no spotlight on you?

Instead, he stands there like Elmer Gantry, going, "Sinner" and here he is, you know, making Hefner look like a stay-at-home.

BATTISTA: I have to say that I think that the one line in the letter that sort of irked me a little bit is when he said, "I'm not perfect." Nobody's asking him to be perfect.

GREENFIELD: Yes, I am not perfect.

BATTISTA: We were just thinking that decent might be a good word.

THOMAS: He also says, despite my best attempts to find Chandra. Was he riding around on a white horse looking for Chandra. I don't think so. GREENFIELD: He's looking for Chandra like O.J. is looking for the killer of his wife.

THOMAS: Exactly.

BATTISTA: Some quick comments from the chat room from Brandy?

BRANDY: Basically what they are saying is that he would have gained so much more respect if had been honest from the get-go because after all he was the last person to see her dead or alive or whatever. And they are also saying that the letter is not what they expected. There is no remorse. He did not, not one time, say, I am sorry.

On the other hand, people are saying why should he apologize? What laws has he broken? And what has he done wrong to apologize for?

BATTISTA: All right. We have to take a quick break here. And as you can imagine, people are going over this letter, including us, with a fine tooth comb. But particularly legal types and police folk, so we will do some of that with legal analyst Roger Cossack right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BATTISTA: Current reward offers for Chandra Levy have reached about $210.000. Some of the offers include $15,000 from Chandra's family, $10,000 from Gary Condit, $26,000 from public contributions and $100,000 from the "National Enquirer."

Let's talk to CNN legal analyst Roger Cossack about Congressman Condit's letter. Roger, as you look that this letter, do you see or hear anything troublesome in it from a legal or a police point of view? Is there anything that they might be able to latch onto in this letter?

ROGER COSSACK, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, in terms of saying, is there something in here that provides a smoking gun to the police, or that they may want to ask him about twice, or we didn't know that you really meant that? No, I don't see anything like that.

And the thing that I am absolutely convinced of is that this letter was gone over very carefully by his advisers and his lawyers before it was published. There are things you can take issue with. There are statements he makes regarding, for example, his first conversation with Mr. Levy when he said, Mr. Levy called him up and he immediately went and offered a reward.

But he obviously doesn't include in there the fact that he denied that he was having an affair with his daughter. There's things that are just patently left out, and I suppose that he will be asked about those things and why he didn't include them in the letter.

BATTISTA: Well, you are a lawyer. let me ask your advice, do you think he said too little or too much?

COSSACK: You know, Bobbie, there is no way to write the letter so it's right. If he would answer all of the questions that your viewers and that all people want to know, it would be too much. And so, what does he do, he errs on the on the side of not putting enough in.

I think that you have to realize that this is a letter that the went to his constituents. And prior to this, as your other guests have pointed out, he was exceptionally popular in this area. This is a man that probably could have run forever, as was pointed out, no one even ran against him last time.

So what he has to do with this letter is come out and say, look, you know, I have done some bad things, but I didn't kill this girl or have anything to do with her death, but let me also remind you the wonderful things that I have done for the people of this congressional district.

I may have fallen from grace, but I did stick to my job as a congressman, and I'm going to ask you to forgive me for what I did wrong, but still let me be your congressman because I get the job done. That's what this letter is all about.

BATTISTA: I got this e-mail a few moments ago, and the person says, "My opinion is that the reference in the letter to he 'women who have disappeared from the same neighborhood' is a calculated attempt to deflect attention away from himself and to fuel a false lead. That reference is an utterly gratuitous insertion that has nothing to do with the purported objective of the letter."

COSSACK: I think that probably, if I would have been advising Congressman Condit, I wouldn't have put that in the letter. First of all, the police have come out and said that, while there have been other young women who have been missing from and around that neighborhood, they are convinced that there is no connection between what happened to Chandra Levy and those other women.

And it also gives the impression to people who don't live in this area, that this is just some area where you know, women are picked up off of the street every day. That just doesn't happen. Obviously, he was living in an area of Washington, D.C., Dupont Circle which is, which is, is certainly anything but -- it's a nice area. It's a pretty safe area as cities go, and yes, there are some problems.

But, this isn't a kind of place that people are just you know, snatched up off the street on a daily basis.

BATTISTA: Yes, you could also probably interpret that as subtly veiled jab at the police department investigation, I don't know.

COSSACK: The last thing this guy wants to do is take on the police department any more than he already has. There is this thing in there about, look, I went in there and took a lie detector test. How much better can I be as a person when we all know that the chief of police has said several times that the lie detector that he has taken is certainly not satisfactory to the police department, and one that was given to him by someone that he hired to give one, or to administer a test is not what the police had in mind.

BATTISTA: Billy Martin, the Levy's attorney, what do you suppose he is looking for in that letter, if anything?

COSSACK: Well, I think that probably Billy has reviewed the letter and sees the kinds of things that were omitted rather than included. Look, one of the -- there are several questions that are not looked at in this letter, and certainly not addressed in this letter. You know, why did you leave that night before your apartment was going to be searched to get rid of that box? What state of mind was Chandra in when you saw her last? What was your relationship like between Chandra Levy and yourself right at the end? There's an implication in that "Talk" magazine article that Chandra Levy had come to a point in the relationship where she was giving him some ultimatums. Was that true, or is that true? I mean, there's all kinds of things that he just doesn't go into that he glosses over and says -- and that's why I say this letter is really aimed at his constituents, where he's really, look, I've done bad things but I am not a murderer. And now let me tell you, let me remind you of all the wonderful things I've done for you, and in the bottom line, isn't that really what we're here about? What I've done to my family, I'll have to deal with my family. My responsibility to you is to be a good congressman, and that's what I've been.

BATTISTA: All right, Roger Cossack, thanks very much. Good to see you.

A couple of e-mails as we go to break here. Mel in Eureka, California says: "I can understand why Condit has not talked until now. For months, people have crucified him for not fueling the media inquisitions. Now the media will burn him at the stake with his every word now that he's broken his silence. Why don't we just forego all of this and publicly execute him?

Trish in Maryland says: "This letter to me only confirms that this man does not see the wrong that he has done. As painful as it may be, he needed to be forthcoming from the start."

We'll take a break and continue here in just a moment. The Condit interview, by the way, will be the topic on Friday's "BURDEN OF PROOF." You don't want to miss that. And in a moment we'll get Beltway reaction from Condit's colleagues on Capitol Hill. Will they be watching tonight, by the way? We'll talk with Jonathan Karl.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BATTISTA: Welcome back to TALKBACK LIVE. We're talking about Congressman Gary Condit's letter to his constituents. CNN congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl joins us now from Washington.

And, Jonathan, I know that, you know, Congress is in recess, but have you been able to gather some reaction from some of those still left in town to this letter?

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Congress is in recess, which means that Capitol Hill is a little bit of a ghost town. But I have been able to get some reaction on paper from some key members of Congress. And really, the reaction that I've gotten encompasses the extremes on both sides, those extremely supportive of Condit and those extremely critical of him.

The first comes from Congressman Sam Farr. Now, Sam Farr is a California Democrat and he is chairmen of the California Democratic Delegation. And what he says about Condit is: "Representative Condit has said he plans to run, and he is a member of our delegation. If he follows through on his plans to run, then he will definitely run to win. And if he does run, then the delegation will support him." Now, Congressman Farr is somebody that is both personally and politically very supportive of Gary Condit, very close to him. And so it's not much of a surprise that he would come out this strongly supportive of him. Meanwhile, on the other side, you've got Congressman Bob Barr -- not to be confused with Sam Farr.

Bob Barr, Congressman, Republican of Georgia, has been perhaps the most critical of Gary Condit. He says through a statement that his office gave to me just a short while ago -- quote -- "This letter is nothing but a bunch of meaningless pap. It says nothing, it does nothing, and it moves us no further down the road of learning any sort of substantive answers to this sordid matter."

Now, that from Bob Barr who was, of course, the very first member of Congress to come out and actually call on Gary Condit to resign. So again, not much of a surprise. But that's the reaction.

Now, what isn't said in these statements is what -- most members of Congress have been very quiet on this, waiting for Condit to come out and say something. I talked to a senior political source over in the Democratic leadership who said, look, if Gary Condit does not go any further in the interview tonight than he went in this letter, he is going to be in trouble -- the question of being further evasive on exactly the nature of his relationship with Chandra Levy will only make his problems worse. That coming from a senior leadership aide on the Democratic side in the House of Representatives. So while you don't see much coming out publicly from other Democrats, some looking a little bit critically at this initial effort of Gary Condit to talk to his constituents.

BATTISTA: So can we assume that most of them will be watching the interview tonight?

KARL: You can assume that most of them will be watching. I've spoken on background discussions with other members of Congress who say they will indeed be tuning in. Now, Bobbie, not everybody will be watching because some who truly want to stay out of this and not comment are going to want to be able to say, hey, you know, when they're asked for reaction, oh, I didn't watch it.

But you can be assured that of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, the good solid majority of them will be tuning in tonight to watch that interview.

BATTISTA: All right, Jonathan Karl up on Capitol Hill. Thank you very much for joining us.

Let me go back to Sam and Dave now, the musical group. Sam and Dave -- are they still around?

(LAUGHTER)

THOMAS: That's not bad. That's right.

BATTISTA: I love them. Let me ask you this, Dave. If the congressman does not do some of the things that people are expecting him to do tonight in that interview, and it's not looking good for him politically, might he resign?

THOMAS: No, I don't think he's going to resign. You have to have a conscience and feel like you've done something wrong. Maybe the party would put pressure on him, I don't know that.

You know, Bobbie, we've been talking about this letter. I'm curious, especially from the parents in your audience, did anybody find anything strange about when he says: "When Chandra's dad called me?" Does that tone offend anyone?

BATTISTA: As opposed to saying what?

THOMAS: Mr. and Mrs. Levy.

BATTISTA: Oh. I don't know. Who is a parent in the audience here? Does that bother them a little bit, Peggy? How about up to you here quickly. You said that yes, it does.

Hold on, we'll get the microphone to you.

PEGGY: I don't think he's a personal friend of his, and I don't think he should refer to him as a dad. Maybe as Mr. Levy, but not as "Chandra's dad."

BATTISTA: Sam? Especially since he's the farther of someone that the congressman was involved with.

GREENFIELD: I didn't realized something until you just brought it up. This letter -- remember I was saying I thought it was terrible? Of course, it's terrible, it was written by committee. He didn't write this letter. He didn't sit down and pour his heart out. If I was writing this letter, if I was him -- well, if I was him, I'd would quit -- but if I was him, I would never mention Chandra Levy's name. I would never have the indignity to mention her parents' name. I would merely say the three things I said that they won't do: "I'm sorry, I did a bad thing, I won't do it again."

But to mention his name -- I agree with Dave -- to mention his name like they're golfing buddies -- how dare he! This guy practically couldn't spell Levy until it was found out they were having an affair.

"Chandra Levy? I barely -- " the quote was, "I barely know her." This is a woman, he said, listen, when you come to my place, take an elevator to the other floor so people won't know. This guy is despicable! And I don't think he will resign either, unless someone who he respects, who has kind some kind of sway over him says, you've go to go. But yes, this letter was written by a committee. I can't believe he would let this letter go out. It's awful!

THOMAS: Two thing, Sam, I had a lot of women call my show today and many of them, I would say most of them, are offended just by the tone of the letter and the way it starts out. But I have to tell you, the people who know him very well say this is exactly the way Gary would write something, that he is responsible for every word of this. GREENFIELD: Then he is really pathetic! Sseriously.

BATTISTA: There was one report that there were several drafts of this letter that were put together by the folks around him that he turned down. GREENFIELD: There should have been three sentences and out -- that's all, three sentences and out.

BATTISTA: All right. I have to take a break and e-mails and phone calls. Sheila, hang on. We will be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BATTISTA: All right. Sheila is on the phone and has been hanging on for a while up there in Connecticut. Sheila, go ahead.

SHEILA: I think letter was very well written. I think it came straight from his heart. No one knows how much he has told the police and what the substance is of -- you know, all the substances.

We don't know what is hearsay or what is fact. And I feel the media are like vultures circling around for the kill.

BATTISTA: You don't feel that he should have maybe been a little more apologetic about his behavior during the beginning days of the investigation of this poor missing girl?

SHEILA: No, because we don't know just when the facts were all put together, who said what and at what time.

BATTISTA: We do know a lot of that though. We do know that he didn't admit to having the affair to the police until the third interview.

SHEILA: Well, so (UNINTELLIGIBLE). That will come out, but I'm wondering about Lisa DePaulo knows all this from the busy body friends who she has interviewed and all. Why aren't they requesting them more? They just disappeared into thin air. I would hear more on -- this is not all fact. We are just listening to a bunch -- they could be lying for all we know. And I think it is just a political thing, I really do.

And Gary to me seems he has done some wonderful things and I think it is just a thing to get him out of office. I don't know if it is for get somebody else in there, but I think it is pure jealousy, and it shouldn't be because he is working for the people. That's what should be concentrated on.

GREENFIELD: Who is jealous of a guy that tried to force a flight attendant to sign a false affidavit? Who is jealous of a guy who told the police, I barely know this woman, when in fact, he did. That letter was from the heart? The Tin Man has a bigger heart.

BATTISTA: Robin...

THOMAS: Doesn't his wife... BATTISTA: Dave, I'm sorry, go ahead.

THOMAS: Doesn't Carolyn Condit deserve an abject public apology for being put through this?

GREENFIELD: Yes, absolutely.

THOMAS: ... at the very least.

BATTISTA: Let me go to Robin in the audience.

ROBIN: I think that he should have been more forthcoming. As I said before, you teach your children to tell the truth and don't omit the truth. Representative Condit did not tell the truth at the very beginning and help the police when a young woman was missing.

He just has not done the right thing. He has done the politically safe thing but not the right thing.

GREENFIELD: Bobbie, if I may say, I used to live in Dupont Circle. I lived there for a number of years. It is a wonderful area. It is a five minute drive from Georgetown, it's a five minute ride from George W. Bush, five minutes from the Virginia suburbs. It's beautiful, it's kind of artsy, bohemian area. Woman walk around at night sometimes unescorted.

It's a safe neighborhood. And for him to say, oh, this neighborhood, any woman walking down the street could get snatched up is fatuous. Shame on him.

BATTISTA: Dave, let me ask you this: Do you think that the main reason that people, whether they are in Modesto or they are on the other side of the country are hacked off about this is because it is really too little too late? What if this letter had come out a couple of months ago? Would it have made a difference even in the style that it is?

THOMAS: I think a letter would have made a big difference. You know, how long do you let a wound fester? And the tone of this, for me and for the people who called my show today, was just unacceptable. I want to mention something else. Recently I went back to Chicago -- I am a Chicagoan. I wanted to see a Cub's game and I was delighted to do that. There are 19 flight attendants on a 747.

On the way out to Chicago, I asked every single one of them that I could find, I said, basically, my name is Dave Thomas. I'm from Gary Condit country and they all smiled, they said. oh, do you know Gary? And I said well, maybe, do you know Gary?

And every single one of them said yes. I said, do you have his card? Oh, yes, I have his card, we have chatted. I know his wife is sick.

GREENFIELD: How did this guy find time to vote? What is his voting record? God almighty, did he have time to get dressed?

(LAUGHTER)

THOMAS: He doesn't carry legislation.

GREENFIELD: I know what he carries, Dave, I mean, man. How does he have time to comb his hair?

THOMAS: He is a lightweight politician. He carries no power in Washington.

GREENFIELD: He's probably nodding out in the lobby.

BATTISTA: Like I said, we weren't expecting him to be perfect, just decent.

GREENFIELD: Good for us.

BATTISTA: We will take a quick break here and come back and do some e-mails.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BATTISTA: We're back. E-mails here: "Mr. Condit, most of us couldn't care less if you speak to the media. What mattered was that you were honest from the start with the police and any powers that be that wanted information in regards to Chandra Levy. Oh, perhaps you were, but not until the third or fourth interview. By that time, God knows what may have happened."

David in Jacksonville, Arkansas says: "Either charge Mr. Condit or please back off. He is innocent until proven guilty."

Dave and Sam, are you guys expecting anything much out of the interview tonight?

GREENFIELD: I certainly don't expect him to suddenly start weeping like at the end of a Perry Mason episode and go, "Yes! I did it and I'd do it again!"

He's given whole new meaning to the term "pocket veto," that's all I can say.

(LAUGHTER)

BATTISTA: Dave?

THOMAS: You know, I don't envy Connie Chung at all. She's got the hardest job in the world tonight. If his attitude is essentially the same, "I've done nothing wrong, I have nothing to apologize for, I'm given you 30 years of my best, what do you expect from me now?" She's got a tough job.

GREENFIELD: She does.

BATTISTA: Dave, let me ask you this. Have you interviewed the congressman in your career there in Modesto? What kind of an interview is he? THOMAS: No, he's -- he does not talk to the media. He has never been on my show, his staff refuses to come on. And I've never been critical of him at all, Bobbie. It's -- he has appeared briefly on a local series TV show that a friend of mine runs, but he doesn't talk to the press, the media. He does not give interviews.

BATTISTA: That's interesting.

All right, Willy on the phone in Kansas. Willy, go ahead.

CALLER: Yes, my question is, why -- Chandra Levy -- why did she get so much coverage when there are thousands of people missing, and you guys don't put none of those guys on TV. And I applaud CBS for not covering this much, because it's just like you guys are just a bunch of vultures.

GREENFIELD: She slept with a congressman, a congressman who tried to point a finger at Bill Clinton, and it's -- he's a congressman. And she's an intern.

THOMAS: And her parents know how to use the media.

GREENFIELD: And congressman, intern and Washington, D.C. are three terms that no self-respecting journalist can stay away from. We are not vultures if he put this out there.

BATTISTA: Cole in the audience, your thoughts.

COLE: Yes. I honestly think that he should -- until (UNINTELLIGIBLE) finds him guilty of something by court of law, then they ought to leave him alone. I think the letter is sufficient, it speaks for itself. Why should he apologize for something as far as we know is not true, or hasn't been done?

GREENFIELD: No one's saying -- I'm not saying he had anything to do with her death or disappearance. I'm saying he should apologize publicly to his constituents, to his wife, and to the police, frankly, for lying to them about he barely knew here. That's all I'm saying. I don't think he had a thing to do with it.

THOMAS: You know, it's one thing when something happens in Oskaloosa, Iowa or Madison, Wisconsin. When something happens in your own district, my younger son's fiance's brother is in the Scouts with Chandra's brother. I mean, these are our family, these are our friends. we feel for these folks. This is a terrible tragedy that's happened to one of our own people.

BATTISTA: All right, we are out of time.

GREENFIELD: Shouldn't overlook that.

BATTISTA: Sam Greenfield and Dave Thomas, thank you both very much for being with us.

GREENFIELD: Thank you, Bobbie.

THOMAS: Thank you, Bobbie.

BATTISTA: Dave, by the way, will be back with us again tomorrow with reaction to the Condit interview, along with the former prosecutor, Marcia Clark and "Talk" magazine's Lisa DePaulo. Stay tuned to "CNN TONIGHT," by the way, for extended coverage at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. "Vanity Fair's" Judy Bachrach will be Larry King's guest. She interviewed Gary Condit yesterday for the magazine's December issue.

We'll see you again tomorrow at 3:00 for more TALKBACK LIVE.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com