Packwood

On May 24, 2007, LOIS MARILYN DeHOFF PACKWOOD, of Linthicum. Wife of the late Richard Packwood, who died in 2001. She is survived by daughters and sons-in-law, Patricia Young and Michael of Eldersburg, MD and Kelly Koschade and Mark of Longmont, Colorado. She is also survived by seven grandchildren. She was preceded in death by son Scott Packwood. A Memorial Service will be held Wednesday, May 30, 11:00 A.M. at St. John's Lutheran Church, 300 West Maple Road, Linthicum, MD 21090. Interment will be private.

On May 24, 2007, LOIS MARILYN DeHOFF PACKWOOD, of Linthicum. Wife of the late Richard Packwood, who died in 2001. She is survived by daughters and sons-in-law, Patricia Young and Michael of Eldersburg, MD and Kelly Koschade and Mark of Longmont, Colorado. She is also survived by seven grandchildren. She was preceded in death by son Scott Packwood. A Memorial Service will be held Wednesday, May 30, 11:00 A.M. at St. John's Lutheran Church, 300 West Maple Road, Linthicum, MD 21090. Interment will be private.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Packwood struck a deal yesterday with Senate ethics investigators and a federal judge to postpone congressional investigation of his private diaries while he appeals to a higher court to keep them secret.Under the deal, a former U.S. solicitor general and federal judge, Kenneth W. Starr, now a Washington lawyer, will take control of the diaries and ultimately have the job of filtering out parts not related to the Senate Ethics Committee's misconduct probe.One likely consequence of the new agreement is that the Senate panel's investigation, already more than a year old, will be delayed perhaps for several months.

OREGON TO GINGRICH: The Republican Revolution stops at the state's eastern border, 117 degrees west longitude. The message may be overdrawn but the result is clear. For the first time since the defeat of the redoubtable Wayne Morse in 1968, Oregon is sending a Democrat to the United States Senate. He is a Portland congressman, Ron Wyden, the winner of the seat vacated by the unlamented Bob Packwood.Mr. Wyden, who gained a certain notoriety by failing to locate Bosnia on a map during a TV pop quiz (he also didn't know the price of a loaf of bread or a quart of milk)

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Packwood, caving in to Democrats incensed by his continued leadership and even presence in the Senate, stepped down yesterday as chairman of the powerful Finance Committee and agreed to leave the chamber altogether by Oct. 1.Both decisions were recommended by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., who had argued as recently as Thursday night that the Oregon Republican deserved 60 days or more to get his affairs in order before quitting the Senate.Sen. William V. Roth Jr., R-Del.

The Rules Committee has scheduled a four-hour hearing tomorrow on excluding Sen. Bob Packwood from the Senate. It shouldn't take four minutes. It is absolutely, positively unconstitutional to exclude a duly elected person from Congress on such grounds as failure to tell the truth during a campaign. This is so obvious in logic, in the context of American political history, in the text of the Constitution and in light of Supreme Court rulings that to have a hearing on it amounts to harassment.

Ethics, morals and decency aside, there will be no cheers from deficit hawks as Bob Packwood flutters ignominiously from the Senate. The Oregon Republican was a true member of the flock -- one of those rare legislators who not only considered the nation's indebtedness a top-priority problem but did something about it.His successor as chairman of the Finance Committee, Sen. William Roth of Delaware, is a bird of a different feather. He first gained national attention in 1981 as the lesser-known author of the Kemp-Roth tax cut bill -- the centerpiece of Reaganomics.

Ted Turner and Jane Fonda have made a comeback in the Packwood controversy -- this time siding with the 28 women who have accused the senator with sexual harassment.In two checks drawn on their individual accounts, Mr. Turner and Ms. Fonda gave $1,000 each to the legal fund for Bob Packwood's accusers, most of whom worked in his Senate office or on his campaigns."The contribution speaks for itself and is a personal decision," Michael Oglesby, a spokesman for the celebrity couple, said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON -- Outlining what will be the foundation for the Senate's welfare plan, Sen. Bob Packwood sidestepped the House's most contentious prohibitions.Mr. Packwood's plan would leave to the states the decision on whether to ban payments to teen mothers and legal aliens. He would end, however, the guarantee that anyone who qualifies for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the nation's main welfare program, can collect benefits.The Oregon Republican was unwilling to offer any assurances that the Republican version of welfare makes life better for the poor.

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge ordered experts yesterday to do laboratory tests on the personal diaries of Sen. Bob Packwood to see if he tampered with them after Senate ethics investigators grew interested in their contents.U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Jackson said the tests should be done by the FBI or by some other group chosen by the Senate Ethics Committee.The committee broadened its misconduct investigation of the Oregon Republican late last year to include potentially illegal efforts to "obstruct" the Senate probe by altering diary tapes or taped transcripts.

WASHINGTON -- With Bob Packwood gone, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland has resigned from the committee that spent nearly three years investigating the Oregon Republican, eventually forcing him to resign from the Senate.An aide said the Baltimore Democrat would remain on the Select Committee on Ethics until Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle recruits a replacement.Mr. Daschle also needs to find a second Democrat to replace Sen. Richard H. Bryan of Nevada, who has resigned from the panel, according to the Hill, a newspaper that covers the Capitol.

Feminist zeal marred decisionThe lengthy story by Karen Hosler Sept. 10 regarding the Packwood resignation was a revelation of Sen. Barbara Mikulski's liberal and feminist views against what she calls the Senate's ''prominent Ole Boys' Club.''Why, after three years on the Ethics Committee did she finally decide and boast of ''firing'' Sen. Bob Packwood? Who gave her such authority when she had only one vote on a committee of six?I commend Sen. Mitch McConnell for his leadership and the dignified manner in which he discussed the committee's activities and findings -- no shouting, no gestures just gentlemanly civility.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE reformers in Washington are less interested in the sexual confessions in Sen. Bob Packwood's diary than in a passage that deals with the illegal use of "soft money."Soft money is what very rich special interests contribute to state and local political parties for sample ballots, grass-roots campaign material, voter registration and turnout drives. Fat cats like soft money because it is exempt from the contributions and expenditure limits of the Federal Election Campaign Act. In return for that favored treatment, such money must not be used for the direct and specific benefit of a candidate for federal office.

It was in part at the urging of Sen. Alan Simpson, a Wyoming Republican, that the contemptible Bob Packwood finally threw in the towel and resigned from Congress. All the same, Mr. Simpson was embittered by the double standard at play in the Senate chamber."I looked around that room," he said, "and saw people who had done things much worse." Now which senior senator fromMassachusetts do you suppose he was referring to?If you're looking for double standards in the way members of Congress who behave sleazily are treated, Massachusetts is certainly the place to focus.

Packwood's RightsAs one who has lived in countries where the constitutional protections we take for granted do not exist, I am appalled at the Senate Ethics Committee's handling of Sen. Robert Packwood.While I abhor Mr. Packwood's conduct, I more strongly disapprove of the committee's unwillingness to afford him the rights guaranteed any accused by the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments.Amendment IV guarantees the right of people to be secure in their personal papers, yet they seized his personal diaries.

Ethics, morals and decency aside, there will be no cheers from deficit hawks as Bob Packwood flutters ignominiously from the Senate. The Oregon Republican was a true member of the flock -- one of those rare legislators who not only considered the nation's indebtedness a top-priority problem but did something about it.His successor as chairman of the Finance Committee, Sen. William Roth of Delaware, is a bird of a different feather. He first gained national attention in 1981 as the lesser-known author of the Kemp-Roth tax cut bill -- the centerpiece of Reaganomics.

WASHINGTON -- A divided Senate Ethics Committee voted along party lines late yesterday not to hold public hearings on the sexual misconduct charges against Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., setting up what could turn out to be a volatile debate on the Senate floor.The committee split between three Republicans who opposed public hearings and three Democrats who favored them. The committee did agree, 6-0, to disclose virtually all information it has gathered in the case.Committee members described the materials as thousands of pages of documents, including all depositions, affidavits, witness statements and even relevant excerpts from Mr. Packwood's own diaries, as well as his private testimony before the committee a month ago.But the committee's most vocal critic, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

Washington -- THE DIARIES of Bob Packwood reveal a sordid personal story that the public was never meant to hear.But the diaries also tell another story that was never intended for citizens to know. It's the story of how our elected leaders in Washington are perpetrating a giant fraud on the people in order to raise and spend tens of millions of dollars in corrupting campaign contributions.These donations, as large as $100,000, $200,000, even $2 million, come from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals.

Washington -- IT DOES make a political difference that women are no longer merely political tokens but are now a visible, serious presence in both the Senate and House.In the awkward matter of sexual misconduct, for instance, California Democrat Barbara Boxer certainly made a difference to Bob Packwood.After fending off for nearly three years charges of victimizing women, Mr. Packwood was forced to resign as a direct result of Ms. Boxer's drive to force the Senate Ethics Committee to hold public hearings into the issue.