Congressman Gary Condit should have been more forthcoming about his affair with Chandra Levy and told what he knew earlier.

Duh.

I think we get it. But for most of the last 100 days that has been the only cogent observation of all the "one trick pony" news folk that are dedicating show after show after show to that irrefutable fact.

We have now seen that single observation confirmed and reconfirmed by lamakers, law enforcement personnel, clergymen, psychologists and profilers. It's been parroted by politicians and pundits. We've had it repeated by women from under their hair dryers during man-on-the-street interviews despite the fact that the ladies were both female and indoors.

A raft of media types, spearheaded by those twin icons of redundant reportage, Hannity and Coombs, have dedicated themselves to regurgitating that single fact in a series of mind numbing exposes unrivalled for repetition since they sunk their collective teeth into Bill and Monica.

All give lip service to "poor Chandra" and how we need to find her, then they are off to another "expert" who reiterates the now familiar mantra "Condit should have spoken up earlier."

All right. He should have. Impeach him. Crucify him. Boil him in oil. Do whatever you are going to do to him but for the love of God either contribute something new to the story or get on to little league scores.

It would be defensible if the air time being spent on the case were given over to practical measures of finding the poor girl. Even showing her picture on a milk carton for half an hour at a time would be more productive than spanking Gary Condit ad nauseum.

But the Hannity and Coombses of the world would rather chew on time tested cud. After all, Clinton bashing day after day was what got them their own shows and enabled them to make their very first Mercedes deposits. Why mess with the formula?

I suppose this is one more by-product of the O.J. debacle. Some news folk have found it is easier to cover the same story over and over and over again than to go out and find new stories or even fresh angles of the old ones.

I wonder how long I could stay on the Times-News payroll if I re-submitted this same column three times a week?

This is not a defense of Gary Condit. I think he is another low-life hypocrite who needs to get his ears pinned back. But re-leveling charges at him day after day gets us no closer to determining the fate of Miss Levy. Shouldn't that be the focus?