Condit's constituents want more answers

MODESTO, California (CNN) -- Rep. Gary Condit, D-California, is under increasing pressure at home to explain his relationship with Chandra Levy, the 24-year-old woman whose disappearance has sparked a full-scale police search and a public relations battle between the lawmaker's aides and the Levy family.

Law enforcement sources said Condit -- a 53-year-old married father of two -- admitted to police during an interview that he had an affair with Levy, who had been an intern in Washington with the federal Bureau of Prisons and whose hometown is Modesto, California.

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Carmen Sabatino, the mayor of Modesto, said the news that Condit has admitted to an affair has shaken some people in the district.

"I think it has rocked people back on their heels a little bit," he told CNN. "And they are saying, 'Wait, wait a minute. What else is there that we should be hearing from the congressman, and why aren't we hearing from him?'"

Condit, a seven-term congressman from Ceres, has not said anything publicly about the relationship. His attorney Abbe Lowell this weekend refused to confirm -- or deny -- reports of an affair and angrily insisted Condit's relationship with Levy is none of the media's business.

"Smug spin," declared a Sunday column in The Modesto Bee, a leading newspaper in Condit's district. The column by Gale Hammons, associate editor of the newspaper's opinions page, took Condit to task for his refusal to speak about the case.

"The weeks of silence tick away," Hammons wrote. "No Levy. No comment from Condit. Whether or not we choose to believe him, believing in him grows harder with each one of his poor choices."

Whatever the outcome of this case, local politicians and fellow House members agree that Condit's political stature has taken a significant hit because of the Levy case.

Washington police are treating Levy's disappearance as a missing persons case, and no one has been named as a suspect in connection with the matter. Condit is just one of 100 people interviewed by police in their ongoing investigation.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Connecticut, noted Sunday that a politician's worth hinges on his or her credibility.

"You've got to tell the truth," Shays told ABC. "And if you don't tell the truth, then everything else you say goes into question."

There were rumblings Sunday of possible political fallout. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, would not rule out the possibility of an Ethics Committee investigation of Condit, although a complaint would be required to initiate one.

Joseph DiGenova, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, floated the idea Sunday that Condit had improperly used his staff to deny reports of a romantic relationship for two months.

"An abuse of his office, as far as I'm concerned," he said on Fox News.

But friends of Condit said the lawmaker has been cooperative in the police probe of Levy's disappearance.

"I feel for the family for their loss, the Levy family, but I think Gary has done everything he can do to shed light on it," said Paul Warda, a friend who lives in Condit's California district.

The Levys said through a spokesman they want Condit to take a lie detector test, but Lowell brushed aside that request by saying the focus should be on other people.

Lowell is making the case that Condit has done everything he can to help find Levy and that the news media have blown his connection to the case far out of proportion.

In a carefully choreographed round of appearances on the Sunday morning talk shows, Lowell asserted that Condit has cooperated completely with police, even if he hasn't responded to media queries.

"You are not drawing the difference between Congressman Condit and his family being extraordinarily helpful to the police and not being extraordinarily helpful to the thousand media people who are dogging him and his kids and his wife and are asking for details of their private lives that they are not going to accommodate," Lowell said on CNN.

Sabatino, the mayor, said he would not be surprised if Condit's difficulties lead to more political challengers in the next election.

"I don't think there is enough blood in the water yet for other politicians to come to the forefront and say that they are going to run against the congressman," he said. "I understand that there will be some forthcoming in the next day or so, but it's to early to tell."