Condit Watch
A daily news digest of Washington’s latest sex-and-lies scandal.

Compiled by Ross Douthat
August 1, 2001 12:00 p.m.

ven as D.C. cops finally called a halt to their searches of Washington parks and wooded areas — and presumably turned their attention to the city's 1,500 or so unsolved murders — a new lead surfaced in the Chandra Levy investigation. A D.C. hardware clerk reported that Chandra asked him to duplicate a set of keys for her during the first week in May — which would be after April 30, the last time anyone had previously reported seeing her. John Woodfolk, who works at Candey Hardware Inc. in Northwest Washington (near Chandra's health club, where she cancelled her membership the day before she vanished), told the police that a woman resembling the missing intern came into the store in early May. She ordered a set of keys duplicated, he said, and wrote the name "Levy" on the envelope in which she was to pick them up. Woodfolk added that she seemed upbeat and cheerful, and that "she had her hair pulled back like in one of those photos." He said that he realized who his customer had been when flyers with Chandra's picture were posted around the neighborhood, and that he told friends — but not the police. Asked why he hadn't come forward sooner, Woodfolk said "I wasn't asked about it." (Huh? Pick up a tabloid, Mr. Woodfolk!) The police, meanwhile, seemed skeptical, pointing out that while the clerk claimed that Chandra had paid with a credit or debit card, store employees were unable to find a receipt — and besides, Chandra's financial transactions show no credit-card activity after April 30. Still, the story is suggestive — especially since the only thing Chandra took with her when she vanished was (drum-roll, please) her key chain.

But Mr. Woodfolk's story hardly matters, when all's said and done, because the results are in! The people have spoken! A recent article in The Onion imagined a world in which the media serves as judge, jury, and executioner — but the Condit Watch has beaten them to the punch. You see, according to a highly scientific, rigorously researched, utterly margin-of-error-proof survey of NRO readers, Gary Condit was involved in Chandra Levy's disappearance. Some might say that such a poll measures only opinions, not actual truth--but to those naysayers, the Condit Watch points out that this was no Bush-Gore nail biter. A whopping 79.2% of NRO readers pointed the finger at the California congressman, as opposed to just 20.8% who thought him entirely innocent. In other words, call the D.C. police, because this case is closed.

Meanwhile, perhaps unaware that NRO readers have already reached a verdict, Salon.com's Joshua Micah Marshall tackles the question of Chandra's supposed flurry of last-minute phone calls to Gary Condit, reported in the New York Post several weeks ago and then debunked by Michael Isikoff in this week's Newsweek. Writes Marshall: "The mystery surrounding what, if any, communication took place between Levy and Condit in the final days before her disappearance is riddled with confusion and contradiction… Not the least of which is that the first on-the-record confirmation of last-minute calls from Levy to Condit came from none other than Condit's first attorney, Joseph Cotchett." The Post, meanwhile, is standing by its earlier story, and with Isikoff sticking to his guns, we have what Marshall calls the "anomaly of separate news organizations sticking by contradictory reports, with each claiming reliable sources as the basis of their reports." He then cites information gathered by Fox News reporter Rita Cosby, which suggests that while Isikoff is right that there were no Chandra-to-Condit calls from her cell phone in the last week, there was an upsurge in calls from Chandra's cell phone to her own answering machine, suggesting that she was expecting a message, or messages, that never came. Marshall concludes that "there may be some truth to both reports, though, like so many developments in this story, it all simply raises more questions than it resolves." Amen, brother!

As for Condit himself, the New York Daily News reports today that he plans to use the August congressional recess to attend a family retreat with his wife and two adult children. Abbe Lowell, Condit's attorney, told the press that Condit "hasn't seen his children since this started. He wants to sort of get with them and sort of have a family healing… And then after that, I think he can talk to his constituents." Among those constituents, of course, are Chandra's parents, who today told reporters that they warned Chandra on the eve of her departure for Washington to avoid becoming "a Monica Lewinsky." "And look what's happened," her mother said. Robert Levy added, "It's much, much worse." According to the Daily News, Susan Levy also took issue with people (Marina Ein, anyone?) who accused her daughter of being a slut, saying that Chandra was "very much in love" with Condit. "We taught our children morality," Chandra's mother said. "You can teach a child what you think is correct, right and wrong, but still, they make their choices." And Robert Levy added, "Or they're confronted by evil. Whatever you teach them won't help if evil gets them."