Hometown Paper Calls On Condit to Resign

CERES, Calif. — Rep. Gary Condit’s hometown newspaper is calling for his resignation.

The Ceres Courier accused the congressman of lying about his affair with missing intern Chandra Levy and said the Democrat has brought embarrassment to his district.

“Condit has badly damaged the trust his constituents have placed in him,” wrote editor Jeff Benziger.

“Prolonging all this agony is a group of supporters who clamor for Condit to hang in there no matter what. They are reminiscent of the band playing on the deck of the sinking Titanic.”

Since the weekly paper with a circulation of 19,500 hit the streets Wednesday, only one reader--a neighbor of Condit--has canceled her subscription.

The paper said Condit should take a page from the playbook of his predecessor, Tony Coelho, who resigned amid a junk bond scandal.

It’s not the first time the paper has opposed Condit or called for his resignation, Condit aide Michael Dayton said Thursday.

The paper asked Condit to step down in 1998, when the congressman voted against impeaching President Bill Clinton, Dayton said.

Condit’s spokeswoman, Marina Ein, said the editorial comes as no surprise.

“The publisher of the paper is a longtime partisan foe of Congressman Condit and therefore the paper has opposed him for nearly a decade. The paper has held this position despite the fact that the residents of Ceres have voted overwhelmingly for the congressman each election night,” Ein said.