I've been kinda disappointed in myself for having any interest at all in the big Gary Condit brouhaha but I do, and I've recently decided why…
About Mr. Condit's sex life, I could care less and I wouldn't know Chandra Levy from Sandra Dee. But I've grown increasingly disgusted with how this nation forms its opinions on public issues, and the role the media plays in that bizarre, tabloid ritual. A large chunk of the U.S. has decided that Mr. Condit is a sleaze. Some think he may be a murderer; others have decided he definitely is, and no further unfolding of facts is likely to convince them otherwise. At the very least, they've decided, he lied to the Levy family about the affair and was not forthcoming to the police with information that might have helped locate the missing girl friend.
Now, some or all of the charges may be true. And if it turns out he offed her, don't claim I ever thought he was innocent. But given how many of the press reports have proven faulty, and how ambiguous or fourth-hand some of the "facts" are, I think it's too soon to be as sure as some people seem to be. It's like: Condit comes across like a putz and he cheated on his wife…so any negative info about him must be true, no matter how flimsy its origin. I'm also uncomfortable with how many of those denouncing Condit on TV seem to be saying, "Bill Clinton slipped away from us but this one won't!" They seem to feel that proving you can drive someone from public life, without even waiting for a charge to be filed, is vital to some preservation of "values" in America. I suspect that some of those demanding Condit's immediate resignation are, deep down, afraid that he future revelations might swing his way, so they have to get him out before that happens.
Here's a link to an article that Andrew Sullivan published in The New Republic. Now, I rarely agree with much of what Mr. Sullivan has written and I think, in this piece, he goes too far in defending Condit and ignores a couple of key points. But read it, not as a suggestion that Condit may be a total innocent, but as an argument that a lot of what's been said and printed about him is too shaky for anyone to have already handed down a final or near-final verdict…
…which, of course, doesn't mean that he didn't break some law.