BBC News Online: World: Americas

Condit launches 'PR offensive'

Chandra Levy has been missing for four months

California Congressman Gary Condit has sent a letter to all his constituents concerning the Chandra Levy case.

And the first television interview with Mr Condit since Chandra Levy's disappearance is to be aired on Thursday evening.

Mr Condit's letter and interviews are part of a carefully crafted media campaign to restore his reputation.

This has drawn strong criticism from the young woman's desperate parents.

It has also caused unease among many fellow politicians and commentators.

They are perplexed as to why Mr Condit should seemingly put his own desire for privacy above doing the utmost to help finding the missing intern.

Questions answered

Mr Condit's letter, sent out yesterday, insists that on the contrary, he has done everything he can to aid the investigation.

He says that he has not been silent with those in charge of finding Chandra Levy and that he has answered every single question asked by the police and FBI.

He said that the tabloid press was turning Ms Levy's disappearance into a spectacle and were reporting rumours as fact.

That, he said, is why he would not discuss his private life with the media.

Chandra Levy's family claim that he had an affair with the young intern - something that Mr Condit is alleged to have acknowledged in testimony to the police.

The police do not regard him as a suspect.

But his political future will depend upon how his constituents respond to his public relations offensive.