Who's Who.

• Author: GLASTRIS, PAUL
• Position: Chandra Levy's case - Brief Article

We may never know what happened to former Washington intern Chandra Levy, according to D.C. police chief Charles Ramsey. But we are likely to find out a lot more about the secret life of Rep. Gary Condit, according to a key Rule of Washington Scandal Investigations. The rule states that behind every ill-behaving politician is at least one staff member enabling that behavior, and so if you want to know the truth, you go after the staffer. That is no doubt why federal prosecutors investigating possible obstruction-of-justice charges have begun questioning two key Condit assistants, Michael Dayton and Michael Lynch. Early in the scandal, Lynch frequently and categorically denied that Condit had had an affair with Levy. Lynch also had conversations with another of Condit's ex-lovers, Ann Marie Smith, about an affidavit Condit wanted her to sign denying the affair. Dayton has been accused by a third Condit paramour, Joleen Argentini McKay, of urging her not to discuss the affair with the police, according to USA Today (a charge Dayton denies). You might recall that it was McKay who gave Condit the now-famous Tag Hauer watch, the box from which the lawmaker discarded in a trash can in Alexandria, Va., hours before police searched his home. It was Dayton who drove Condit to Alexandria.

Prosecutors no doubt hope Lynch and Dayton will follow in the footsteps of previous Washington enablers who squealed on their bosses, such as Robert Rota, the House postmaster who admitted helping former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski secure $21,300 in a stamps-for-cash scheme that led to Rosty's conviction. Why do staffers so frequently-aid in their bosses' misdeeds? Because doing so is often a surer path to power than just doing your job. John Dean, counsel to Richard Nixon, went from not being able to get newspapers delivered to his White House office to having the power to order up helicopters for himself, thanks to his willingness to take part in the Watergate cover-up. "I soon learned," he writes in Blind Ambition, "that to make my way upwards, to a position of confidence and influence, I had to travel downward through factional plays, corruption and finally outright crimes."

The Senate has finally agreed to allow Vice President Dick Cheney to have the Navy pick up the $134,000 tab for electricity for his official 33-room Washington residence. Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that oversees White House spending, approved the cost...