The Skeleton Parade: Condit's Endless Summer Blazes On

By Josh Tyrangiel

While the Chandra Levy case sits cold, the Gary Condit caldron simmers away--now embroiling Condit's top man in Washington. Joleen McKay, 29, told USA Today that she had had an affair with the Congressman when she worked for him in the mid-1990s. When she wanted to go to the FBI after the Levy story broke, McKay says, Condit aide Michael Dayton told her, "Leave it in the past, or it will ruin you"--an allegation Dayton denies. On July 16, before McKay publicly acknowledged the affair, she told TIME that Condit and his wife Carolyn "didn't have the typical relationship. It was more of a business relationship." McKay also told TIME that Condit's staff, with whom she keeps in touch, feels "betrayed" by the womanizing fallout. Condit is said to be wrestling with how to spend the August congressional recess--hide out at home or face scrutiny in public? Wherever he ends up, we can safely assume it will be a hot place.

--Reported by Matthew Cooper/Washington and Laura A. Locke/San Francisco

With reporting by Matthew Cooper/Washington and Laura A. Locke/San Francisco