I watch with morbid fascination as this story slowly builds. She has been missing for two months. So far it is not even a criminal investigation, only a "missing person" investigation. Congressman Condit avoids comment.

I am a pessimist. I believe she is very dead. I don't say that Condit did it, but he does seem to know more than he has revealed.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 19, 2001

Answers

Oh yes the DIVERT ATTENTION AWAY FROM Dubya with the Chandra Levy story. Ripped right from the RNC fax list and regurgitated here by "fascinated" Lars.

-- (bush@twofaced.scum), June 19, 2001.

Maybe they should ask Ted, Gary, or better yet, Bill. Democrats have a long history of involvement with young interns and such. And Bill has a long history of making people disappear or stop breathing.

-- Love em (and@lose.em), June 19, 2001.

Or... could it be, she decided to just up and leave? Maybe a trip to France (I hear they have a better standard of living there) and she didn't tell anyone.

If you're right Lars, that congressman has some pretty "good" connections. It might even be my uncle, ya know Guido.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), June 19, 2001.

Scummo--

Wrong again, I've been watching MSNBC and reading Time Magazine. Do yourself a favor and don't take sides before the whole story is out. You may find yourself backed in a corner.

On the other hand, maybe Dubya did it.

Maria--

Is that the Guido in South Philly? A fine man.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 19, 2001.

take your own advice Lars

-- (bush@twofaced.scum), June 19, 2001.

June 20, 2001 New York Times

The Girl Who Vanished

By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON — I was an intern for a congressman when I was 17. Nothing lurid ever happened.

He was Jim Hanley, Democrat of New York, a funeral home director from Syracuse. I spent the summer in the Cannon Office Building typing his letters to Moose lodges in Skaneateles (ZIP code 13152). And one day he asked me to write a lead-in to something he was putting into The Congressional Record. It was my first published paragraph, albeit under his name, and I thought I would burst with pride and patriotism.

Those were in the days, of course, before the words "Washington intern" became salacious and sinister.

The convulsions over the secret life of one intern from California with a mane of thick black hair, a curvy figure and an infatuation with a married Democratic official had only just subsided when the capital became obsessed with another.

But Chandra Levy is not Monica Lewinsky. She won't show up in New York doing a line of handbags. She may not show up at all.

Monica was a titillating soap opera. Chandra is a noir mystery that may turn ugly and evil.

Her parents returned to Washington late last night to meet with D.C. police and to fan media interest in their daughter's fate.

The 24-year-old vanished 50 days ago. "There appeared to be no signs of a struggle," Sgt. Joe Gentile, the D.C. police spokesman, said yesterday. "Her bags were there, credit cards, driver's license, cash . . . and there was some jewelry." Her cell phone was there, her keys missing.

She was last seen on April 30, when she went to cancel her membership at the gym near her Dupont Circle apartment. The next morning her parents received an e-mail about her travel plans.

She had been headed home to Modesto after completing a six-month internship with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to attend her graduation from the U.S.C. master's program in public administration.

The Washington Post reported that Chandra had told one close relative that she was romantically involved with the congressman who represents Modesto, Gary Condit.

It is the oldest Washington story, one part romance, two parts droit du seigneur: the powerful man who thrives on adoration and the adoring young woman he meets in his office.

Mr. Condit, 53, has a condo a short walk from where Chandra lived. His wife, Carolyn, 53, with whom he has a grown son and daughter, is chronically ill and lives in California.

The congressman has refused to talk to the press for seven weeks about his friendship with Chandra.

His Colgate smile and styled hair have earned him the nickname "Mr. Blow-Dry" around the House. The wall behind his chair in the Modesto office, according to The L.A. Times, is a shrine to himself, with 8-by-12-inch portraits of himself posing by himself. He posed for the "Hunks on the Hill" calendar and for Easyriders, a fleshy motorcycle magazine.

He has dodged questions about Chandra's cell phone calls to him and visits to his condo, except to say the two were "good friends."

His San Francisco attorney, Joe Cotchett, said: "I told him flatly, `You are a public figure, and have to respond accordingly to the press.'

"To ask me if they were having an affair is ridiculous, because it is not relevant to the inquiry of her disappearance."

Mr. Cotchett said his concern had always been for "this fabulous young lady," but said police were not as aggressive as they should be about missing people, since "F.B.I. figures show 453 people have gone missing in Washington D.C. since January first. It's a national disgrace."

Even if he knows nothing about her disappearance, it's sad that Mr. Condit, who voted for an impeachment inquiry of Bill Clinton, is now using Clintonian evasion.

Why is he acting like a man with something to hide? Why isn't he more actively and noisily helping to find his "good friend"?

"This young lady is missing five weeks," an associate of Mr. Condit says. "You have to assume at this point she is dead, as even the police will say privately."

Women never leave behind their handbags and jewelry when they go on trips, as Grace Kelly told Jimmy Stewart in "Rear Window."

"Women," she said, "aren't that unpredictable."

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 20, 2001.

What's the Story with the Missing Intern?, Slate, June 19, 2001

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), June 20, 2001.

It is odd that Condit isn't forthcoming with whatever knowledge he has. I can't believe he's "afraid" of an affair scandal. The public doesn't really care about his bedroom behavior. So, can we conclude he's trying to protect any foul play? We'll find out about it soon enough.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), June 21, 2001.

Shades of Delaware's Thomas Capano, eh?

-- LBO Grise (LBO Grise@aol.com), June 21, 2001.

Delaware?

-- (nemesis@awol.com), June 21, 2001.

Lars, I guess you've seen the latest developments with Condit. I'd say he's toast.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), July 03, 2001.