Washington again buzzes with intern sex scandal
WELCOME TO the heart of a most modern American scandal. It's 8pm on a balmy Washington evening in the popular restaurant and entertainment district of Adams Morgan. A palpable buzz seems to rise above the crowded curbside tables and bottles of wine - gossip fuelled by the presence of a row of satellite-television trucks just around the corner.
The trucks surround the apartment of Gary Condit, a Congressman representing Modesto, in central California. A little over a week ago, Mr Condit seemed a highly prized deer caught in the headlights of a runaway scandal. Now his position has degenerated into something more sinister. The police have said murder is one of the possibilities they are investigating - Washington is talking of little else.
Mr Condit, a married father of two, has finally told police that he was involved in a relationship with 24-year-old intern Chandra Levy. Ms Levy, who lived in nearby Dupont Circle, has been missing since April 30. She was due to leave for home after the end of her internship. Her bags were packed beside her laptop and mobile phone. The only thing missing from her apartment were her keys. It took 10 weeks and three interviews by police before Mr Condit confirmed what Ms Levy's own family had known all along.
His aides had earlier denied anything more than a friendship but insisted he would help all he could - a line offered by Mr Condit himself in a phone call with Ms Levy's mother.
As her family works hard to ensure the maximum attention is focused on her disappearance and the congressman's reticence, Mr Condit's week has been a rough one by any standard.
Washington police - now under nationwide scrutiny - have reclassified her disappearance from a missing person's case to a murder probe. Sniffer dogs are searching vacant lots and abandoned buildings across the city. The FBI are interviewing an airline hostess, Anne-Marie Smith, who says she was pressured by Mr Condit's lawyers to sign an affidavit denying having an affair with him.