'Chandra World Tour' circus

Are you sick and tired of all Chandra, all the time?

Everywhere – in newspapers, on television and cable news programs, on radio – the story of the missing intern, Chandra Ann Levy, pollutes the airwaves. Does CNN stand for Chandra News Network? It certainly seems that way, despite the fact that there have been absolutely no new developments in the almost two months since Levy vanished from Washington, D.C.

But, in this case, the media is only partly to blame. In fact, the tabloidesque media swarm to this story is the creation of the two most vocal participants in it – Chandra's parents, Dr. Robert and Susan Levy – and two of the most silent – Chandra's alleged paramour, Congressman Gary Condit, and his House Democratic leadership, which failed to demand that he disclose what he knows.

While they deserve sympathy as parents of a 24-year-old who has mysteriously disappeared, the Levys' "Search for Chandra World Tour" is unseemly, tactless, and pathetic. It's hard to believe that they actually think this is helping their daughter's cause. One day, the Levys are on ABC's "The View." As if soap-opera-watching housewives who
watch "The View's" annoying, male-bashing yentas, will have any information on the whereabouts of Chandra. Not likely. Then, they are on the morning network shows and afternoon and evening cable shows. It's the ultimate in reality TV – "Chandra's Parents do The Real World."

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And just when 14:59 looms imminently on the Levy family clock – and their daughter is about to become just another of the several hundred-thousand U.S. adults reported missing each year – it starts all over again.

The Levys seem to be so caught up in this whirlwind media tour that their acting's gotten a bit old. Last Wednesday, shown arriving at Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport, the Levys were all laughter. Then, like Bill Clinton at Ron Brown's funeral, their laughs turned easily and instantly into maudlin, overly dramatic sighs and looks of despair, as their newly hired attorney, Billy Martin, holds a press conference.

If his name sounds familiar, Martin is the attorney hired by Monica Lewinsky's mother, Marcia Lewis, during Monicagate. That's a bizarre, imprudent move on the Levys' part, given the fact that their daughter – with their help – is fast becoming the media's next Monica, a young Washington intern who appears to have had an "inappropriate relationship" with a much older, married, federally elected Democratic incumbent politician. Apparently, Chandra's parents knew about her relationship with Condit, all along, but failed to disclose it prior to embarking on their multi-media tour – perhaps hoping to avoid the Monica comparison. But now they've assisted in the embarrassing comparison – in spades.

This sick addiction to publicity has manifested itself before in the parents of victims, who should be mourning or searching for their child, not searching for the 16th minute.

The starkest example of this is John Walsh, host and creator of "America's Most Wanted" and father of Adam Walsh, a boy kidnapped, brutally assaulted and murdered. While
"America's Most Wanted" has helped catch countless criminals, there is something depraved about a parent who uses his child's tragedy to become a star and make a career. In a full-page ad, Sunday's Detroit News advertised Success Magazine's "Success 2001" motivational business seminars. Among speakers like Bill Clinton, some pro athletes and Montel Williams, is Walsh. His "Power of Perseverance" speech is a sad display of his son's death turned into a business, including topics "Coping with Crisis: 5 Tactics That Work," and "Ways to Use Setbacks as a Springboard to Success."

Then, there's Veronica McQueen, mother of Kayla Rolland, the 6-year-old killed by classmates at school in Mt. Morris Township Michigan, last year. Instead of mourning her innocent daughter's death, she became the postermother for last year's Million Mom March, advocating gun control. In the wake of her daughter's death, McQueen, 30, enjoyed star
treatment. She visited the White House to meet Bill Clinton. She complained to the papers that she was upset – her pictures with him didn't turn out well, so she got another visit. Appearing on the "Today" show twice, McQueen was featured in New Yorker Magazine and spoke at the Million Mom March. Then she partied with pro-gun control celebs, including Rosie O'Donnell, Susan Sarandon, Reese Witherspoon, Courtney Love, Roseanne Cash, and John McEnroe. Is that how normal people mourn when their daughter is murdered? Only in the James Brady world.

And the world of Chandra Levy's parents.

As they and congressional Democrat leaders must know, the relationship between Chandra and Rep. Condit is quite obviously more than a friendship. Any congressional intern will tell you: 53-year-old, married congressmen don't give their unpublished personal voice mail/pager numbers to 24-year-old interns they are not having an affair with. They don't have interns spend the night at their condo, which Condit – who lives in the hip swinging singles Washington neighborhood of Adams-Morgan – told investigators he did, according to the Washington Post and the New York Daily News. You don't need to see "Fatal Attraction" to know that extra-marital cheating only begets trouble.

Newspapers in Condit's Modesto, Calif., congressional district – and WND's Joseph Farah – are correct. Involved in her disappearance or not, Condit, a public figure, owed it to his constituents, law enforcement, and the Levys to have spoken publicly about what he knew pertaining to the case – weeks ago. But, instead, he remained silent for seven weeks, finally meeting with the Levys late last week. Still, his behavior is suspicious, and he has not spoken to his constituents. They have a right to know what went on. After all, Condit represents them and has not been able to do that with the Chandra media circus hanging over his head.

Where are the House Democratic leaders? Dick Gephardt should have immediately demanded Condit's full disclosure. But that's not the way congressional Democrats operate. For them, full disclosure only applies to Republicans, like Karl Rove and the Bush administration. Remember the Monica scandal? Anything to hold on to power – regardless of a young, expendable woman.

This time, her name is Chandra.

Only Condit's full disclosure and her parents' overdue departure from TV stardom will end the media circus.

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