Thanks to Rep. Gary Condit, the media is going ape over agriculture!
The presence of the California Democrat has drawn hordes of TV cameras and reporters to the usually quiet and all-but-unnoticed public hearings of the House Agriculture Committee.
The third-floor room in the Longworth House Office Building has suddenly become the hot destination for news-hungry media itching to catch Condit, who serves on the panel.
The sudden spotlight is a big switch for the sleepy committee – more known for its pork bellies than its politicians.
“You’re more likely to see folks from the Farm Bureau than Fox News at public hearings for the Agriculture Committee,” said Michelle Hitt, press secretary for Rep. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga).
“Some peanut magazines would cover it, and C-Span is always there, but you usually don’t have every major news organization present.”
Its 51 members usually spend their days hearing testimony from members of the National Turkey and Chicken councils or the American Sheep Industry Association.
Sexy testimony is when the National Cattlemen Beef Association takes the floor.
But all that changed when intern Chandra Levy vanished April 30 and Condit – the married “Blue Dog” Democrat with two children – reportedly admitted having had an affair with her.
Condit has not been identified as a suspect by police, but his apartment and the park in his neighborhood have been searched and he has submitted to a lie-detector test arranged by his lawyer.
The added attention led one pol to joke that he and his fellow lawmakers had crafted “one heck of a farm bill.”
“When we get this kind of national media attention for a farm bill, I think it really says something – I can’t imagine why else they’re here,” Chambliss joked in an interview with CNN.