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CNN Live Sunday

Democratic Congressman from Texas Calls on Condit to Resign

Aired July 29, 2001 - 17:11   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.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: The man at the center of the Chandra Levy story -- if not the investigation -- may not be able to survive the political fallout from all of this. CNN's Bruce Morton now with what could possibly be the harshest blow yet to the congressional career of Gary Condit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Congressman Gary Condit, who has been, as the British would say, assisting the police in their investigation of missing intern Chandra Levy, was probably toast anyway, in terms of having any political future. Polls show his constituents unlikely to vote for him again, but he came officially toast -- maybe burnt toast -- this past week, when Texas Democratic Congressman Charlie Stenholm said: "Congressman Condit has brought controversy and discredit to his family, his district and the Congress."

It wasn't what Stenholm said, though discredit to the Congress is listed as a violation of House rules in its Ethics Committee manual. It wasn't what Stenholm said, it was that he was the one to say it.

Senator Republican leader Trent Lott has said Condit should resign, but he is a Republican and a senator. House Democrats could ignore him. Representative Bob Barr of Georgia has said Condit should resign, but he is a notoriously partisan Republican. House Democrats could ignore him.

Stenholm, by contrast, is a Democrat, like Condit, is like Condit a member of the Blue Dogs, a coalition of moderate and conservative Democrats. Stenholm and Condit both sit on the Agriculture Committee. For Stenholm to say Condit brought discredit to the House matters in a way that Lott's and Barr's calls for resignation didn't.

It's like a generation ago when the House Judiciary Committee voted articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, and some Republicans on that committee voted aye -- Butler of Virginia, Cohen of Maine, Fish of New York, and so on.

Republican congressmen who weren't on the committee listened and thought, "if they can, I can. I can vote for impeachment and it won't hurt me back home." Nixon's support in the House evaporated. He resigned because impeachment seemed certain. So, Charlie Stenholm, a Texas conservative who voted to impeach Bill Clinton, is a Condit critic who was a Condit friend. He gives cover to other Democrats the way those Judiciary Committee Republicans gave cover to their colleagues years ago.

It isn't what yet said, it's who says it, and if Gary Condit needed proof of how much trouble he is in, Charlie Stenholm gave it to him last week.

I'm Bruce Morton.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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