05-02-2011, 01:48 AM
St Clair mentions our great Republican Senator Bob Packwood at the beginning of his latest segment.I thought it would be good to introduce people to Ex-Senator Packwood,so I found this article.Packwood was slime,and it was because he couldn't keep his hands off women that he finally was brought down.
Page 1 of 7
The other Packwood scandal - ex-Sen. Bob Packwood's misuse of influence and campaign funds - includes related articles - Cover Story
Common Cause Magazine, Winter, 1995 by Vicki Kemper
In the stranger-than-fiction world of Washington politics, it's worth remembering that former Sen. Bob Packwood once had to be dragged from his office and then carried onto the Senate floor--feet-first--before he'd vote on a campaign finance reform measure.
It was the cleaning woman who tipped off the sergeant-at-arms and a couple of aides to Packwood's hiding place on that February midnight in 1988, but even after the authorities unlocked Packwood's office door the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee refused to surrender, using his shoulder to try to keep them out.
The police prevailed, but Packwood won where it counted; the campaign finance reform bill, like similar ones before and since, was killed by a Republican-led filibuster. Packwood was thus freed to return to what we now know was his senatorial style: trading favors, wielding power, selling access, chasing campaign cash--and groping women.
We know because six years later it was again women--former staffers, campaign aides and lobbyists--who blew the whistle on Packwood, charging him with what amounted to a decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct. And when the Senate Ethics Committee began to investigate, Packwood again tried to bar the door--denying the charges and then saying he couldn't remember what he'd done, all the while stonewalling investigators and working to discredit his accusers. But for all his altering of diary entries, Packwood could not rewrite history.
In the end the Ethics Committee's unanimous vote recommending Packwood's expulsion from the Senate was based on more than his abuse of women. While the committee's investigation had confirmed "at least 18 separate unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances" and numerous instances of evidence-tampering, it also concluded that Packwood had "abused his position of power ... by engaging in a deliberate and systematic plan to enhance his personal financial position by soliciting, encouraging and coordinating employment opportunities for his wife from persons who had a particular interest in legislation or issues that [he] could influence."
In fact, the diaries reveal far more than that. Packwood's diaries and supporting documentation--correspondence, staff memos, records of votes and committee testimony, plus reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC)--indicate that:
* Packwood not only sought financial favors from persons needing his legislative or regulatory help, but also did their bidding: speaking at committee hearings; instructing his staff to write memos to address their concerns; sponsoring and tailoring legislation; putting in a good word with regulators; championing the nominee for a government job.
* He was almost always soliciting campaign funds, and he judged most contacts, meetings and some political decisions according to how much support--and money--they would generate. In a September 1992 diary entry he recounted a visit from a local businessperson. "He gave me $1,000," Packwood said, adding, "that's worth 10 minutes."
* In some cases Packwood knowingly skirted or violated federal campaign laws.
* Packwood and key supporters and lobbyists operated in a small, incestuous, revolving-door world. Former aides became lobbyists, fundraisers, campaign consultants and corporate executives; lobbyists and executives became friends and sycophants.
* In addition to using his own Senate office and employees for political campaign purposes--and attempting to cover it up--Packwood advised his Republican colleagues to destroy any evidence of such activities in their own offices.
* Some of Packwood's "requests" for contributions to his legal defense trust fund stopped just short of extortion.
Packwood's diaries depict a world in which money rules, and where the people and special-interest groups that provide it have extraordinary power. The evidence provided by the Packwood case suggests that the current political and campaign financing system works because the people in office need the people with the money--and vice versa. The system creates, in Packwood's words, "a happy relationship"--for an extremely narrow group of individuals and interests.
Bob and the Fat Cats
October 18, 1989: I did have time to come back to the office, talk to Tim Lee and Tim says he'll be happy to put up $10, 000 a year for Georgie. Talked to Ron Crawford. He'll put up $7,500 a year for Georgie. That's three out of three and I haven't even hit up [Name Deleted] or Steve Saunders. I've got to handle this carefully. I don't want in any way there to be any quid pro quo. I'm not going to do anything for these guys that I would not do anyway. ... I think I'll ask them for $5,000 apiece and hold it in reserve and indicate to Georgie that if she can make $20,000 I'll make sure she gets another $20,000. Then I'll come up with more and that will give me enough of an asset base to be able to buy a small two bedroom townhouse.
March 27,1990: I said, "Well, if you're going to support Georgie in the style to which I'd like her to become accustomed..." And he laughed. He says, "Yeah, I'll guarantee the $7,500 for five years." And he said, "If you're chairman of the Finance Committee I can probably double that." We both laughed. I don't intend to do that. I frankly don't intend this supplement to Georgie to last more than five years in any event. I'd also talked with Tim Lee today to re-verify his $10,000 and $10,000 from Bill Furman for Georgie. She'll have basically $30,000 to $40,000 in income for five years as long as I remain in the Senate.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1...ntent;col1
Page 1 of 7
The other Packwood scandal - ex-Sen. Bob Packwood's misuse of influence and campaign funds - includes related articles - Cover Story
Common Cause Magazine, Winter, 1995 by Vicki Kemper
In the stranger-than-fiction world of Washington politics, it's worth remembering that former Sen. Bob Packwood once had to be dragged from his office and then carried onto the Senate floor--feet-first--before he'd vote on a campaign finance reform measure.
It was the cleaning woman who tipped off the sergeant-at-arms and a couple of aides to Packwood's hiding place on that February midnight in 1988, but even after the authorities unlocked Packwood's office door the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee refused to surrender, using his shoulder to try to keep them out.
The police prevailed, but Packwood won where it counted; the campaign finance reform bill, like similar ones before and since, was killed by a Republican-led filibuster. Packwood was thus freed to return to what we now know was his senatorial style: trading favors, wielding power, selling access, chasing campaign cash--and groping women.
We know because six years later it was again women--former staffers, campaign aides and lobbyists--who blew the whistle on Packwood, charging him with what amounted to a decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct. And when the Senate Ethics Committee began to investigate, Packwood again tried to bar the door--denying the charges and then saying he couldn't remember what he'd done, all the while stonewalling investigators and working to discredit his accusers. But for all his altering of diary entries, Packwood could not rewrite history.
In the end the Ethics Committee's unanimous vote recommending Packwood's expulsion from the Senate was based on more than his abuse of women. While the committee's investigation had confirmed "at least 18 separate unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances" and numerous instances of evidence-tampering, it also concluded that Packwood had "abused his position of power ... by engaging in a deliberate and systematic plan to enhance his personal financial position by soliciting, encouraging and coordinating employment opportunities for his wife from persons who had a particular interest in legislation or issues that [he] could influence."
In fact, the diaries reveal far more than that. Packwood's diaries and supporting documentation--correspondence, staff memos, records of votes and committee testimony, plus reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC)--indicate that:
* Packwood not only sought financial favors from persons needing his legislative or regulatory help, but also did their bidding: speaking at committee hearings; instructing his staff to write memos to address their concerns; sponsoring and tailoring legislation; putting in a good word with regulators; championing the nominee for a government job.
* He was almost always soliciting campaign funds, and he judged most contacts, meetings and some political decisions according to how much support--and money--they would generate. In a September 1992 diary entry he recounted a visit from a local businessperson. "He gave me $1,000," Packwood said, adding, "that's worth 10 minutes."
* In some cases Packwood knowingly skirted or violated federal campaign laws.
* Packwood and key supporters and lobbyists operated in a small, incestuous, revolving-door world. Former aides became lobbyists, fundraisers, campaign consultants and corporate executives; lobbyists and executives became friends and sycophants.
* In addition to using his own Senate office and employees for political campaign purposes--and attempting to cover it up--Packwood advised his Republican colleagues to destroy any evidence of such activities in their own offices.
* Some of Packwood's "requests" for contributions to his legal defense trust fund stopped just short of extortion.
Packwood's diaries depict a world in which money rules, and where the people and special-interest groups that provide it have extraordinary power. The evidence provided by the Packwood case suggests that the current political and campaign financing system works because the people in office need the people with the money--and vice versa. The system creates, in Packwood's words, "a happy relationship"--for an extremely narrow group of individuals and interests.
Bob and the Fat Cats
October 18, 1989: I did have time to come back to the office, talk to Tim Lee and Tim says he'll be happy to put up $10, 000 a year for Georgie. Talked to Ron Crawford. He'll put up $7,500 a year for Georgie. That's three out of three and I haven't even hit up [Name Deleted] or Steve Saunders. I've got to handle this carefully. I don't want in any way there to be any quid pro quo. I'm not going to do anything for these guys that I would not do anyway. ... I think I'll ask them for $5,000 apiece and hold it in reserve and indicate to Georgie that if she can make $20,000 I'll make sure she gets another $20,000. Then I'll come up with more and that will give me enough of an asset base to be able to buy a small two bedroom townhouse.
March 27,1990: I said, "Well, if you're going to support Georgie in the style to which I'd like her to become accustomed..." And he laughed. He says, "Yeah, I'll guarantee the $7,500 for five years." And he said, "If you're chairman of the Finance Committee I can probably double that." We both laughed. I don't intend to do that. I frankly don't intend this supplement to Georgie to last more than five years in any event. I'd also talked with Tim Lee today to re-verify his $10,000 and $10,000 from Bill Furman for Georgie. She'll have basically $30,000 to $40,000 in income for five years as long as I remain in the Senate.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1...ntent;col1
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.â€
Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller