Name That Party: The Gary Condit Chronicles

A defamation suit by former California Rep. Gary Condit against journalist Dominick Dunne was tossed:

A federal judge has thrown out former California Congressman Gary Condit's defamation lawsuit against author Dominick Dunne, extending the one-time lawmaker's costly courtroom losing streak over rumors of his relationship to murdered intern Chandra Levy.

In a 22-page opinion issued Tuesday morning, U.S. District Judge Peter Leisure summarily dismissed Condit's suit and ruled the First Amendment as well as California law protected Dunne's expressions of opinion. The ruling further shrinks Condit's legal maneuvering room.

"I'm just delighted," Dunne's attorney Paul LiCalsi said Tuesday. "This was an abusive lawsuit all along."

And it gives us another opportunity to play name that party. McClatchy refuses to provide Condit's political affiliation.

That's bad enough. However, AP outdoes McClatchy by running with the claim that Condit was a Republican. AP just gets it flat out wrong.

Condit, a former Republican congressman from California's Central Valley, has denied any involvement in or knowledge of Levy's May 2001 disappearance at age 24, or her death. However, he acknowledged to investigators that they had an intimate relationship.

Condit was a Democrat. This was the biggest story immediately prior to the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attacks on the US. Once the 9/11 attacks occurred, news of Chandra Levy's disappearance fell off the radar.

AP has no excuse here. They screwed up. Badly.

The Associated Press affiliates who pay good money for their wire reports have done all of their readers a grave disservice. Many have run the original report, misinforming their readers, and the mistake will make its way into print reports as well. Don't expect to see a correction as prominently displayed as the error. (HT: Don Surber)