[lit-ideas] Re: sex scandals
- From: "Steve Chilson" <stevechilson@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2006 21:41:57 +0100
sex scandals in history Eric, yadayada - are you rooting for the Mets or
the Yankees?
On Wed, 04 Oct 2006 13:56:58 -0400, "Eric Yost"
<eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> said:
> This was published in 1998, so it avoids Clinton and Foley.
>
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/congress.htm
>
> Congressional Sex Scandals in History [excerpt]
>
> This history begins in 1974, but not because episodes of
> sexual impropriety only go back a quarter-century. In the
> old days, they simply weren't reported. In 1903, for
> example, the Speaker of the House, David Henderson (R-Iowa),
> was forced to resign over his sexual relationship with the
> daughter of a senator. Henderson never said why he was
> quitting, and neither did the press. But that was then, and
> this is now.
>
>
>
> 1974
>
> Rep. Wilbur Mills (D-Ark.)
> On Oct. 9, 1974, Mills, the chairman of the House Ways and
> Means Committee and perhaps the most powerful member of the
> House, was stopped for speeding near the Jefferson Memorial
> at 2 a.m. Shortly after, Annabella Battistella – a stripper
> who went by the stage-name of Fanne Foxe, Mills campaign
> button the "Argentine Firecracker" – jumped out of his car
> and into the Potomac River tidal basin. The incident did not
> immediately threaten Mills, whose district was solidly
> Democratic. But Mills won reelection with only 59 percent of
> the vote, his lowest total ever. Within weeks, Mills
> appeared on a Boston stage carousing with Foxe, apparently
> intoxicated. Faced with an uprising among House Democrats,
> Mills was forced to resign as Ways and Means chairman, and
> in 1976 he announced he would not seek another term, ending
> his 38-year House career. He was succeeded by Jim Guy
> Tucker, whose own ethics got the attention of Kenneth Starr
> some two decades later.
>
> 1976
>
> Rep. Wayne Hays (D-Ohio)
> In its May 23, 1976, editions, The Washington Post quoted
> Elizabeth Ray as saying that she was a secretary for the
> House Administration Committee, headed by Hays, despite the
> fact that "I can't type, I can't file, I can't Hays campaign
> button even answer the phone." She said the main
> responsibility of her $14,000-a-year job was to have sex
> with Hays. The fall of Hays, an arrogant bully who was one
> of the most powerful – and disliked – members of Congress,
> was rapid. The House ethics committee opened its
> investigation on June 2. He resigned as chairman of the
> Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on June 3. In
> the Democratic primary five days later, a car-wash
> manager/bartender who had run against Hays four previous
> times and never received more than 20 percent of the vote
> got 39 percent. Hays later resigned his committee
> chairmanship, dropped his reelection bid, and finally
> resigned on September 1.
>
>
>
>
> Rep. John Young (D-Tex.)
> On June 11, 1976, Colleen Gardner, a former staff secretary
> to Young, told the New York Times that Young increased her
> salary after she gave in to his sexual advances. In
> November, Young, who had run unopposed in the safe
> Democratic district five consecutive times, was reelected
> with just 61 percent of the vote. The scandal wouldn't go
> away, and in 1978 Young was defeated in a Democratic primary
> runoff.
>
> Rep. Allan Howe (D-Utah)
> On June 13, 1976, Howe was arrested in Salt Lake City on
> charges of soliciting two policewomen posing as prostitutes.
> Howe insisted he was set up and refused to resign. But the
> Democratic Party distanced itself from his candidacy and he
> was trounced by his Republican opponent in the November
> election.
>
> Rep. Fred Richmond (D-N.Y.)
> In April 1978, Richmond was arrested in Washington for
> soliciting sex from a 16-year-old boy. Richmond apologized
> for his actions, conceding he "made bad judgments involving
> my private life." In spite of a Democratic primary
> opponent's attempts to cash in on the headlines, Richmond
> easily won renomination and reelection. But his career came
> to an end four years later when, after pleading guilty to
> possession of marijuana and tax evasion – and amid
> allegations that he had his staff procure cocaine for him –
> he resigned his seat.
>
> 1980
>
> Rep. Jon Hinson (R-Miss.)
> On Aug. 8, 1980, during his first reelection bid, Hinson
> stunned everyone by announcing that in 1976 he had been
> accused of committing an obscene act at a gay haunt in
> Virginia. Hinson, married and a strong conservative, added
> that in 1977 he had survived a fire in a gay D.C. movie
> theater. He was making the disclosure, he said, because he
> needed to clear his conscience. But he denied he was a
> homosexual and refused GOP demands that he resign. Hinson
> won reelection in a three-way race, with 39 percent of the
> vote. But three months later, he was arrested on charges of
> attempted oral sodomy in the restroom of a House office
> building. He resigned his seat on April 13, 1981.
>
>
>
>
> Bauman campaign button Rep. Robert Bauman (R-Md.)
> On Oct. 3, 1980, Bauman, a leading "pro-family"
> conservative, pleaded innocent to a charge that he committed
> oral sodomy on a teenage boy in Washington. Married and the
> father of four, Bauman conceded that he had been an
> alcoholic but had been seeking treatment. The news came as a
> shock to voters of the rural, conservative district, and he
> lost to a Democrat in November.
>
> 1981
>
> Rep. Thomas Evans (R-Del.)
> The Wilmington News-Journal reported on March 6, 1981, that
> three House members – Evans, Tom Railsback (R-Ill.) and Dan
> Quayle (R-Ind.) – shared a cottage during a 1980 vacation in
> Florida with Paula Parkinson, a lobbyist who later posed for
> Playboy magazine. All three proceeded to vote against
> federal crop-insurance legislation that Parkinson had been
> lobbying against, and questions were raised whether votes
> were exchanged for sex. Railsback and Quayle denied having
> sex with her. Evans said he regretted his "association" with
> Parkinson and asked his family and God to forgive him. But
> he forgot to include the voters, who in 1982 threw him out
> of office.
>
> 1983
>
> Reps. Dan Crane (R-Ill.) and Gerry Studds (D-Mass.)
> The House ethics committee on July 14, 1983, announced that
> Crane and Studds had sexual relationships with teenage
> congressional pages – Crane with a 17-year-old female in
> 1980, Studds with a 17-year-old male in 1973. Both admitted
> the charges that same day, and Studds acknowledged he was
> gay. The committee voted to reprimand the two, but a
> back-bench Georgia Republican named Newt Gingrich argued
> that they should be expelled. The full House voted on July
> 20 instead to censure the two, the first time that ever
> happened for sexual misconduct. Crane, married and the
> father of six, was tearful in his apology to the House,
> while Studds refused to apologize. Crane's conservative
> district voted him out in 1984, while the voters in Studds's
> more liberal district were more forgiving. Studds won
> reelection in 1984 with 56 percent of the vote, and
> continued to win until he retired in 1996.
>
> 1987
>
> Rep. Ernie Konnyu (R-Calif.)
> In August 1987, two former Konnyu aides complained to the
> San Jose Mercury News that the freshman Republican had
> sexually harassed them. GOP leaders were unhappy with
> Konnyu's temperament to begin with, so it took little effort
> to find candidates who would take him on in the primary.
> Stanford professor Tom Campbell ousted Konnyu the following
> June.
>
> 1988
>
> Sen. Brock Adams (D-Wash.)
> On Sept. 27, 1988, Seattle newspapers reported that Kari
> Tupper, the daughter of Adams's longtime friends, filed a
> complaint against the Washington Democrat in July of 1987,
> charging sexual assault. She claimed she went to Adams's
> house in March 1987 to get him to end a pattern of
> harassment, but that he drugged her and assaulted her. Adams
> denied any sexual assault, saying they only talked about her
> employment opportunities. Adams continued raising campaign
> funds and declared for a second term in February of 1992.
> But two weeks later the Seattle Times reported that eight
> other women were accusing Adams of sexual molestation over
> the past 20 years, describing a history of drugging and
> subsequent rape. Later that day, while still proclaiming his
> innocence, Adams ended his campaign.
>
> Rep. Jim Bates (D-Calif.)
> Roll Call quoted former Bates aides in October 1988 saying
> that the San Diego Democrat made sexual advances toward
> female staffers. Bates called it a GOP-inspired smear
> campaign, but also apologized for anything he did that might
> have seemed inappropriate. The story came too close to
> Election Day to damage Bates, who won easily. However, the
> following October the ethics committee sent Bates a "letter
> of reproval" directing him to make a formal apology to the
> women who filed the complaint. Although the district was not
> thought to be hospitable to the GOP, Randy "Duke"
> Cunningham, a former Navy pilot who was once shot down over
> North Vietnam, ousted Bates in 1990 by fewer than 2,000 votes.
>
>
>
>
>
> 1989
>
> Rep. Donald "Buz" Lukens (R-Ohio)
> On Feb. 1, 1989, an Ohio TV station aired a videotape of a
> confrontation between Lukens, a conservative activist, and
> the mother of a Columbus teenager. The mother charged that
> Lukens had been paying to have sex with her daughter since
> she was 13. On May 26, Lukens was found guilty of
> contributing to the delinquency of a minor and sentenced to
> one month in jail. Infuriating his fellow Republicans,
> Lukens refused to resign. But he finished a distant third in
> the May 1990 primary. Instead of spending the remaining
> months of his term in obscurity, Lukens was accused of
> fondling a Capitol elevator operator and he resigned on
> October 24, 1990.
>
> Rep. Gus Savage (D-Ill.)
> The Washington Post reported on July 19, 1989, that Savage
> had fondled a Peace Corps volunteer while on an official
> visit to Zaire. Savage called the story a lie and blamed it
> on his political enemies and a racist media. (Savage is
> black.) In January 1990, the House ethics committee decided
> that the events did occur, but decided against any
> disciplinary action because Savage wrote a letter to the
> woman saying he "never intended to offend" her. Savage was
> reelected in 1990, but finally ousted in the 1992 primary by
> Mel Reynolds.
>
> Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.)
> In response to a story in the Aug. 25, 1989, Washington
> Times, Frank confirmed that he hired Steve Gobie, a male
> prostitute, in 1985 to live with and work for him in his
> D.C. apartment. But Frank, who is gay, said Frank campaign
> button he fired Gobie in 1987 when he learned he was using
> the apartment to run a prostitution service. The Boston
> Globe, among others, called on Frank to resign, but he
> refused. On July 19, 1990, the ethics committee recommended
> Frank be reprimanded because he "reflected discredit upon
> the House" by using his congressional office to fix 33 of
> Gobie's parking tickets. Attempts to expel or censure Frank
> failed; instead the House voted 408-18 to reprimand him. The
> fury in Washington was not shared in Frank's district, where
> he won reelection in 1990 with 66 percent of the vote, and
> has won by larger margins ever since.
>
> 1990
>
> Rep. Arlan Stangeland (R-Minn.)
> It was reported in January 1990 that Stangeland, married
> with seven children, had made several hundred long-distance
> phone calls in 1986 and 1987 on his House credit card to or
> from the residences of a female lobbyist. Stangeland
> acknowledged the calls and conceded some of them may have
> been personal. But he insisted the relationship was not
> romantic. Voters of his rural district were not buying,
> choosing a Democrat in November.
>
> 1991
>
> Sen. Charles Robb (D-Va.)
> On April 25, 1991, with NBC News about to go on the air with
> allegations he had an extramarital affair with Tai Collins,
> a former Miss Virginia, Robb made a preemptive strike. The
> Virginia Democrat, married to Lyndon Johnson's daughter,
> said he was with Collins in a hotel room, but all that took
> place was a massage over a bottle of wine. Collins, in a
> subsequent interview with Playboy, said they had been having
> an affair since 1983. It was thought that these charges,
> along with long-circulated but unproven allegations that
> Robb had attended Virginia Beach parties where cocaine was
> present, would jeopardize Robb's 1994 bid for re-election.
> But the GOP nominated Oliver North, the Iran-Contra figure
> who had his own credibility problems. Robb squeaked by with
> 46 percent in a three-way race.
>
> 1992
>
> Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii)
> In October 1992, Republican Senate nominee Rick Reed began
> running a campaign commercial that included a
> surreptitiously taped interview with Lenore Kwock, Inouye's
> hairdresser. Kwock said Inouye had sexually forced himself
> on her in 1975 and continued a pattern of sexual harassment,
> even as Kwock continued to cut his hair over the years.
> Inouye, seeking a sixth term, denied the charges. And Kwock
> said that by running the commercial, Reed had caused her
> more pain than Inouye had. Reed was forced to pull the ad,
> and while many voters took out their anger on the
> Republican, Inouye was held to 57 percent of the vote – the
> lowest total of his career. A week later, a female
> Democratic state legislator announced that she had heard
> from nine other women who claimed Inouye had sexually
> harassed them over the past decade. But the women didn't go
> public with their claims, the local press didn't pursue the
> story, and the Senate Ethics Committee decided to drop the
> investigation because the accusers wouldn't participate in
> an inquiry.
>
> Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.)
> Less than three weeks after Packwood narrowly won a fifth
> term, the Washington Post on Nov. 22, 1992, reported
> allegations from 10 female ex-staffers that Packwood had
> sexually harassed them. The Post had the story before the
> election, but didn't run it as Packwood had denied the
> charges. With the story now out in the open, Packwood said
> that if any of his actions were "unwelcome," he was
> "sincerely sorry." He then sought alcohol counseling. But
> his longtime feminist allies were outraged, and with more
> women coming forward with horror stories, there were calls
> for his resignation. It wasn't until September of 1995 when,
> faced with the prospect of public Senate hearings and a vote
> to expel, Packwood announced his resignation.
>
> 1994
>
> Rep. Mel Reynolds (D-Ill.)
> Freshman Reynolds was indicted on Aug. 19, 1994, on charges
> of having sex with a 16-year-old campaign worker and then
> pressuring her to lie about it. Reynolds, who is black,
> denied the charges and said the investigation was racially
> motivated. The GOP belatedly put up a write-in candidate for
> November, but Reynolds dispatched him in the overwhelmingly
> Democratic district with little effort. Reynolds was
> convicted on Aug. 22, 1995 of 12 counts of sexual assault,
> obstruction of justice and solicitation of child
> pornography, was sentenced to five years in prison, and
> resigned his seat on October 1.
>
>
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Steve Chilson
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