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CNN Live At Daybreak

Will Constituents Forgive Congressman Gary Condit?

Aired August 03, 2001 - 07:16   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to hear more about the congressman. You know, back in Modesto, California, Congressman Gary Condit's constituents wonder when he's coming home, what he's going to say about his affair and whether his staff obstructed justice. They shouldn't hold their breath. Gary Condit is going on a retreat with his wife and kids during this August recess of Congress. So let's go to Marc Sandalow. He's the Washington bureau chief for the "San Francisco Chronicle."

Marc, what is going on in the family right now, the Condit family?

MARC SANDALOW, "SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE": Well, or course, Carol, they have been cloistered and we don't exactly know. I can tell you that he has two grown children, a boy by the name of Chad who's 33, a daughter, Katie is in her 20's. Both of them worked back in California for Governor Gray Davis, who's actually a very close, personal and political ally of Gary Condit's.

I think the family, it's fair to assume, is in somewhat of a state of shock. I mean they have watched -- the way they've watched their father be vilified on tabloids, cable television, newspapers around the world. And what Condit has said through his staff is that August, what they call the district work period here in Washington, will be consumed with him spending time with his family and healing.

You know, we all assume in Washington that everything has a political motivation. And indeed most of what politicians here do do have political motivations. But remember that people -- these are real folks and they have their own personal reasons to do what they do and it looks like Condit will spend most of August trying to heal his family wounds.

LIN: Sure. And it's understandable but what does it say about how Gary Condit views his political career, that he is not going home to Modesto to face the music with his constituents if only for a couple of days?

SANDALOW: Yes, Carol, you make a very interesting observation there because I think that if Gary Condit's primary focus was on winning reelection he might be doing something very different. He might be going back to his district, talking to his hometown newspaper, trying to paint a sympathetic view of himself and trying to show that he still is a hard charging congressman. Now, somebody who doesn't have a political future doesn't need to worry about any of those things at all.

Remember what Bill Clinton did in the first days after the Monica Lewinsky confession. He went on a family vacation. But it was a very public ordeal. He did this on national television. He did this with pictures posed with his wife and daughter.

LIN: And people embraced him. I mean this is a district in Modesto that adores this man. And he had a reputation for picking up the telephone and wishing people happy birthdays, when he found out somebody was, you know, putting their parents in a nursing home, he'd make a call to see how the family was doing. He had a very personal style.

SANDALOW: Well, and that may still be the case, Carol, that -- I think that the district is likely to be much more forgiving than the voices you've heard emerge, you know, through the national clamor on all of this. I think that -- remember two-thirds of the central valley district in California have voted for this guy for six terms now. He's very popular politician.

Now, there is a vocal group of folks back home who want nothing to do with him now, who are horrified with what he did. Many of them didn't vote for him in the first place. There is still room in his district for Condit to explain himself but there's no sign that that explanation is coming any time soon.

LIN: Yes, and less and less room to maneuver on Capital Hill as many people are speaking out about his behavior and the fact that he lied about this affair.

Thanks so much Marc Sandalow, Washington bureau chief for the "San Francisco Chronicle," good to see you.

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