Review on Talk Magazine article on Chandra Levy
Patty
A daily news digest of Washington’s latest sex-and-lies scandal.
Compiled by Ross Douthat
National Review
August 9, 2001 12:50 p.m.
The much-ballyhooed Talk magazine Chandra Levy story hits newstands this week,
offering a wealth of new details about the case, but few real revelations. Once
again, with feeling, we are given the tale of the young intern — "a tiny little
thing, barely 110 pounds, much more petite than her photos suggest" — and the
U.S. representative nicknamed "Congressman Blow-Dry" whom she thought looked "a
little like Harrison Ford." We have Sven Jones, Chandra's close friend in D.C.,
describing how Chandra was determined to convince Condit to leave his wife; we
have Chandra's final phone message, left on her aunt's machine, in which she
claimed to be coming home, and said she had "some big news"; we have Condit
reaching the peak of his political influence, as a blue-dog Democrat under a
Republican president, just as it was all about to come crashing down; and we
have, in painful detail, the anguish of Chandra's parents, still holding out
hope that their daughter will find her way home. Lisa DePaulo's story does try
to lay to rest the rumor that Chandra was pregnant — although she quotes Jones
saying that Chandra told him that she had a "female problem" early in April, a
month before her disappearance. And while there are no shocking tales of
one-night stands, as Condit spokeswoman Marina Ein hinted a few weeks ago,
DePaulo gently indicates that the congressman was hardly Chandra's first married
lover. This, the story suggests, may have given an added urgency to Chandra's
desire to pressure Condit into leaving his wife. "She'd been down this road
before," DePaulo writes, "with older married men — her weakness — who promised
her the world and then abandoned her … And this time the stakes were much
higher, as they often are the third or fourth time around, particularly with a
man she considered the ultimate catch." So she pushed, and pushed — until May 1
rolled around, and Chandra the mistress became Chandra the missing person.
What is fascinating in the Talk article, ultimately, is not the retelling of the
much-told tale, but the incidental nuggets of information that DePaulo throws
in, adding texture to the story. For instance, everyone already knows about the
incompetence of the D.C. police — but it turns out that the cops were even more
Keystone-ish than we imagined. On May 5, four days after Chandra vanished, her
father called the D.C. police, told them that he hadn't heard from his daughter
for days, and asked them to check out her apartment. They promised to do so
and then never called back. The next day he called again, begging and pleading,
and finally the cops got back to him, to say that Chandra wasn't in her
apartment. Somehow, though, they neglected to mention that everything else was
there — her suitcases, her purse, her wallet, and so on. As Bob Levy puts it: "I
guess they thought it was enough that they didn't see a body on the floor."
Needless to say, there was no attempt made to check the security tapes from
Chandra's apartment building, which boasted a state-of-the-art security system
but which no one examined until it was far too late, by which time the tapes
from the crucial days had already been erased.
And then there was the D.C. P.D.'s approach to "interrogating" Gary Condit.
Recounts DePaulo: "In early June D.C.'s finest knocked on Condit's door in the
hope of chatting about the case, only to be told it wasn't a 'convenient time.'
So they left. In mid-June, after publicly declaring that they'd like a second
interview with the congressman — since, at that point, they'd only spoken to him
once, for 15 minutes — it took another 10 days to set it up, due to 'scheduling
conflicts.' After the much-publicized meeting finally occurred, sources told the
New York Daily News that Condit was 'cooperative,' but that the police didn't
'press him' on details about the relationship. Didn't press him?" When all was
said and done, it took until July, two months after Chandra vanished, for the
truth to finally come out. And this delay, as DePaulo notes, may have been
crucial. "Sixty-seven days" passed, she writes, "before Gary Condit admitted to
the police that yes, the two had been lovers. Sixty-seven days. A staggering
amount of time in a police investigation, particularly a missing-person
investigation — which, by definition, tends to focus on those closest to the
victim." Then again, given the D.C. police, one wonders how much difference it
would have made.
DePaulo also offers her own take on "Condit Country" — the congressman's
California district, where he regularly swept to reelection unopposed. "In
June," she reports, even before all the revelations, "Modestans knew the score.
'Hell yeah, everybody knows about Gary!' says one local businessman. 'I worked
with him 20 years ago and he was a slut then. So?'" And "'Lemme guess,' says
another, chuckling. 'You're here to write about the only story in town. Our
congressman and who he's doing.' So yeah, they knew the drill. But Gary Condit
also got their farm bills passed, got them water rights, and Gary Condit was
good-looking and charming, the kind of guy who could 'go anywhere, president
even,' as more than one Modestan puts it. The message was clear: He may be a
slut, but he's our slut." Charming, to the last — or perhaps not quite to the
last, since DePaulo notes that Condit's career seems finished, even among those
who used to consider him "our slut." So there is a limit, perhaps — even for a
man who looks a little like Harrison Ford.
And as for conclusions — well, like everyone else, DePaulo doesn't have a
resolution to this story, and has her doubts that one will ever appear. "The
police now say that they have all but discounted suicide — which was a dubious
theory from the start," she notes, quoting Police Chief Charles Ramsey saying
"you can't kill yourself and bury yourself." And the same applies to a random
killing, with the cops suggesting that "they'd have found her already if that
had been the case." Which leaves (aside from the remote possibility of amnesia,
or a sudden trip to Outer Mongolia) only the possibility that has so tantalized
investigators, reporters, and the general public alike since the case began
namely, that Chandra was done in by someone she knew and trusted. And of course,
there seems no better candidate (no pun intended) for that role than Gary Condit
himself. But after 100 days (and counting), and still no real clues, it seems
that whoever did away with Chandra Levy also managed to do away with every scrap
of evidence, leaving her family, Condit Watch, and the scandal-obsessed public
waiting in vain for a third act that will never come.
Maggie
>Lisa DePaulo's story does try
>to lay to rest the rumor that Chandra was pregnant — although she quotes
>Jones
>saying that Chandra told him that she had a "female problem" early in April,
>a
>month before her disappearance.
***I haven't seen anyone mention this, but I've always assumed that the reason
police don't believe Chandra was pregnant is that they found her birth control
pills in her apartment. I'd bet that the "Tuesday" pill had been taken and
"Wednesday" had not. Sure wish someone would leak that little detail, though.
Maggie
"You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind
word alone."--Al Capone.
Jules
>From: maggi...@aol.comSPAMBLOC (Maggie)
>Date: 8/10/01 3:15 PM Central Daylight Time
>Message-id: <20010810161530...@mb-fi.aol.com>
>
>patty posted a news story:
>>Lisa DePaulo's story does try
>>to lay to rest the rumor that Chandra was pregnant — although she quotes
>>Jones
>>saying that Chandra told him that she had a "female problem" early in April,
>>a
>>month before her disappearance.
>
>***I haven't seen anyone mention this, but I've always assumed that the
>reason
>police don't believe Chandra was pregnant is that they found her birth
>control
>pills in her apartment. I'd bet that the "Tuesday" pill had been taken and
>"Wednesday" had not. Sure wish someone would leak that little detail,
>though.
Remember the timeline that indicated Condit had a doctor appointment close to
the day Chandra disappeared. I remember someone here wondering what that was
about. Wonder if there is a connection?
Kris Baker
Maggie wrote in message <20010810161530...@mb-fi.aol.com>...
>patty posted a news story:
>>Lisa DePaulo's story does try
>>to lay to rest the rumor that Chandra was pregnant —
>>although she quotes Jones saying that Chandra told him
>>that she had a "female problem" early in April, a month
>>before her disappearance.
>***I haven't seen anyone mention this, but I've always
>assumed that the reason police don't believe Chandra
>was pregnant is that they found her birth control
>pills in her apartment. I'd bet that the "Tuesday" pill had
>been taken and "Wednesday" had not. Sure wish
>someone would leak that little detail, though.
>Maggie
Good reasoning, Maggie - I'd not thought about the
birth control pills. Obviously, any birth control method
she was using would have been left behind in the
apartment.
I either read (but most likely heard on the news) that
Sven Jones had stated Chandra had recently had her
period. I can't find the precise reference right now,
and (unfortunately) I didn't put that in my news
summaries.
Kris
mothra...@hotmail.com
>
> Maggie wrote in message <20010810161530...@mb-fi.aol.com>...
> >patty posted a news story:
> >>Lisa DePaulo's story does try
> >>to lay to rest the rumor that Chandra was pregnant —
> >>although she quotes Jones saying that Chandra told him
> >>that she had a "female problem" early in April, a month
> >>before her disappearance.
>
> >***I haven't seen anyone mention this, but I've always
> >assumed that the reason police don't believe Chandra
> >was pregnant is that they found her birth control
> >pills in her apartment. I'd bet that the "Tuesday" pill had
> >been taken and "Wednesday" had not. Sure wish
> >someone would leak that little detail, though.
> >Maggie
>
> Good reasoning, Maggie - I'd not thought about the
> birth control pills. Obviously, any birth control method
> she was using would have been left behind in the
> apartment.
I think Maggie's idea is a good one, too, but I disagree that *any*
birth control method she was using would have been left behind. If she
were using a diaphragm, depending on where she was going and who if
anyone she was meeting, she may well have taken her birth control
equipment with her.
I wondered if the police had found evidence of a recent period in her
apartment, which would be as conclusive as birth control pills, I guess.
But Maggie's guess is much more elegant.
Martha
Kris Baker
mothra...@hotmail.com wrote in message <3B746A...@erols.com>...
You're probably right -- I didn't think of things like
that. Birth control has never been a need at
our house, even though I did give birth once.
I was thinking of the "only her keys were missing"
thing.
But....it's most likely that she *was* on the pill,
since her own father had previously prescribed
that method for her.
Kris
Steve Franklin
news:c4_c7.6706$Xl1.81...@newssvr17.news.prodigy.com...
:
: mothra...@hotmail.com wrote in message <3B746A...@erols.com>...
We really can't get past the assumption that nothing in the apartment
was touched between the scream at ~4:30 AM and the day the police
finally searched the apartment. If they had found a goddamned elephant
you guys would be making up scenarios about Chandra's affair with Luigi
the Human Canonball. Like my Sam Spade spam tracking program likes to
tell me upon noticing a suspect header, "All headers below may be
forged."
--
Steve Franklin
______
Remove the spaces and translate:
s franklin at erols dot com
Kris Baker
Steve Franklin wrote
>We really can't get past the assumption that nothing in
>the apartment was touched between the scream at
>~4:30 AM and the day the police finally searched the
>apartment.
I'm *way* past that 4:30am point.
Reason: lack of forensic evidence.
>If they had found a goddamned elephant you guys would
>be making up scenarios about Chandra's affair with Luigi
>the Human Canonball.
That from The Consistent King of Conspiracies?
Kris
darkstar
apartment, Chandra didn't have to *be* pregnant. All she had to do
was tell Condit she was pregnant.
GMSpider
>Sven Jones had stated Chandra had recently had her
>period. I can't find the precise reference right now,
>and (unfortunately) I didn't put that in my news
>summaries.
>
>Kris
>
>
>
>
with all her male friends? Me thinks that Sven is getting his 15 minutes of
fame.
ACADEME, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.
ACADEMY, n. [from ACADEME] A modern school where football is taught.
The Devil's Dictionary
darkstar
> with all her male friends? Me thinks that Sven is getting his 15 minutes of
> fame.
Sven: Hey, are you going to KickboxStepPowerAbs tonight?
Chandra: No, I'm not FUCKING going to FUCKING KickboxStepPowerAbs
Goddamit! What, do I look fat? Just tell me! Say it! Get off my
case! You think I'm fat! Admit it! Is that your subtle way of
saying I look fat? Well you can kiss my FAT ASS, Which I'm going to
be SITTING ON tonight, while you KicboxPowerStepFuckingAbs ARE YOU
HAPPY????????????????
Sven: Fine, forget it, I was just asking. (Cheez.)
Chandra: Oh, I'm sorry. Don't mind me. I'm on the rag. Besides,
Mr. Wonderful
did NOT FUCKING CALL me last night. Can you believe THAT!!!! Anyway
maybe I will go to KicboxStepPowerMuscleMadness dammit. Are you going
to eat that candy bar?
Cliff or Linda Griffith
> Hey, they worked out at the same gym.
>
> Sven: Hey, are you going to KickboxStepPowerAbs tonight?
> Chandra: Oh, I'm sorry. Don't mind me. I'm on the rag. Besides,
> Mr. Wonderful
> did NOT FUCKING CALL me last night. Can you believe THAT!!!! Anyway
> maybe I will go to KicboxStepPowerMuscleMadness dammit. Are you going
> to eat that candy bar?
That's cute, Darkstar!
Just today, there was a recipe in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (I'm not
making this up) that might benefit untold numbers of people. (Beverly
Bundy is the food editor.) I'm quoting this exactly:
Rx For PMS
Serves 1 mean woman
1 ounce Drambuie
1/2 ounce chilled black vodka
1/4 ounce chilled heavy cream
In large, chilled shot glass, combine Drambuie and vodka. Slowly float
cream on top to serve.
--Beverly Bundy
Linda
(Personally, I might recommend more than 1 1/2 ounces of hooch, though,
if she's really on a tear.)