Gary A Condit

A grand jury was scheduled Thursday to review allegations that Rep. Gary Condit obstructed justice when he asked flight attendant Anne Marie Smith to sign an affidavit stating that they had not had an affair. The Stanislaus County Grand Jury was expected to meet at 4 p.m. to take up the unusual allegations, said Marnie Ardis, the county employee who oversees the grand jury.

For a few moments Wednesday night, Gary A. Condit stood alone at the back of the House chamber, arms locked across his chest, glancing around as if searching for a friendly face. As his colleagues began to fill the room for the first vote after returning from their August recess, the Democratic congressman from Ceres found several. A hearty handshake from North Carolina Republican Richard M. Burr. A buss on the cheek from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Hugs from Reps. Anna G.

For 2 1/2 years, no elected official was closer to Gov. Gray Davis than the conservative Democratic congressman from the San Joaquin Valley town of Ceres, Gary Condit. But when Davis last week broke his silence and criticized Condit for his conduct after Washington intern Chandra Levy's disappearance, the relationship came to an apparent end. The breach further exposed the Condit family's raw wounds and underscored the often transitory nature of political alliances.

The press is not entitled to know everything about my private life. . . . You are not the church. You are not the court. --Rep. Gary Condit to Newsweek * Well, yes, but the congressman's comment last week missed the point and told a lot about why he's politically terminal. Condit's a public official who was living a private life that he feared the public would learn about.

Redistricting architects said Thursday that the San Joaquin Valley seat of embattled Congressman Gary Condit (D-Ceres) will be redrawn to make it stronger for Democrats at future elections--and perhaps less hospitable to Condit. Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda), chairman of the Senate Redistricting Committee, said the new district would be formally proposed in the next couple of days. "We're not throwing [Condit] over the side. We did not draw him out of a seat," Perata said.

Rep. Gary Condit's political days are numbered. For one reason, just look at the numbers in a likely congressional redistricting plan. Condit is being shoved overboard by the political system--not only fellow Democrats, but the very device many pols had thought would be his life ring: redistricting. Redistricting drafters in the state Senate, working with the California House delegation, are about to propose a plan that would make Condit's Modesto-based district much more Democratic.

Rep. Gary Condit's two adult children quit their jobs with Gov. Gray Davis on Tuesday, criticizing him for saying their father lacked candor in the Chandra Levy mystery and for failing to show loyalty to Condit, a longtime friend. In a resignation letter to Davis, Chad and Cadee Condit emphasized their strong loyalty to their father, and cited the longtime alliance of Davis and the veteran Democratic congressman from the San Joaquin Valley town of Ceres.

The legal and political troubles of Rep. Gary A. Condit (D-Ceres) intensified Sunday, with colleagues calling for an ethics investigation and an attorney threatening legal action on behalf of a woman who says she had an affair with the congressman. As the sensational case of Condit and his relationship with missing intern Chandra Levy dominated another round of Sunday TV talk shows, one Republican lawmaker, Rep. Scott McInnis of Colorado, called for the beleaguered congressman to resign.

You don't want to be his enemy. You don't necessarily want to be his friend. But if you're in a tight spot, chances are you'd want to have him on your side. So it was natural that Rep. Gary Condit (D-Ceres), fighting the most difficult battle of his career, would turn in recent weeks to Richie Ross, one of California's most seasoned political veterans and an advisor to Condit for 20 years. This was not altogether unfamiliar terrain for Ross, who is part of a team counseling Condit.

When St. Augustine sat down to write his "Confessions" near the end of the 4th century, he unwittingly created a best-selling formula for future sinners to follow. The saint's intimate, anguished admissions of bad behavior--from trashing a neighbor's pear tree to cohabiting with a concubine--set the benchmark for such later transgressors as Jean Jacques Rousseau and Leo Tolstoy. Sixteen centuries later, when Rep.