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American Morning

Condit's Future: Congressman Returns to Washington With Uncertain Future

Aired September 04, 2001 - 09:08   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.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Congressman Gary Condit returns to Washington with his political future in question. He's come under fire from some Democratic colleagues over his response to the disappearance of former intern Chandra Levy.

CNN's congressional correspondent Kate Snow joins us from Capitol Hill with the latest -- Kate.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Colleen, for most members of the House, returning to Washington is going to mean an intense period of work, a lot of business to get through. It's going to mean that for Gary Condit as well, but on top of all the legislative business, Condit will likely have to deal with growing criticism from his Democratic colleagues and others on the other side of the aisle.

Ever since Condit's first television interview on prime time, Democrats say there has been a growing feeling of distrust towards Condit and concerns about ability to win reelection next year. After the Democratic leader publicly criticized Condit, others followed suit, and many expect there will be a snowball effect this week of more controversy and more comments about Condit.

Chad Condit, the congressman's son, spoke a little while ago on CBS. He says this is all about politics, not criminal wrongdoing. He said, "All of the questions we're going to face are tough political questions, where people sense that there is blood in the water, and they're going to be in on that, and they're going to jump on top of Gary and pile on, and we expect that, and we know it's coming."

The big question is not whether there will be criticism, but what will anyone do about it? The question is will the House or the Democratic Caucus take any action in the vein of removing Condit from key committees. He does serve on the Intelligence Committee. I'm told by aides to senior Democrats they will consider removing him from committee assignments, but there is also a caveat, Colleen, and that is there is almost no precedent for removing a member of Congress midstream from a committee assignment.

So we will wait to see what the discussions hold and whether any decisions are made about whether or not to remove Condit from any of those key committees -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: Where does that leave most Democrats on the issue. What do they want Gary Condit to do it?

SNOW: Most Democrats who I've spoken with say they would simply like him to be more forthright, more forthcoming about what, if any, involvement he had, to answer more questions.

They are worried about his political future. But they don't want him to resign at this moment. Why? Because if we were to resign, they would have to hold a special election for his seat, and it's quite likely that in his 18th District in California, a very Republican district, that they might lose that seat. So many are saying don't make him resign right now. Don't put too much pressure on him, but sort of force him into the corner for deciding he won't run for reelection again.

MCEDWARDS: Yes, politics.

Kate Snow, thanks very much.

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