Packwood

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Rules Committee unanimously dismissed a petition yesterday to unseat Sen. Bob Packwood for lying during last fall's campaign about accusations that he made aggressive sexual advances toward women.The Rules Committee action, taken without debate, concerned the narrow issue of whether the Oregon Republican's election in November could be overturned on the grounds of fraud. "This doesn't mean we've dismissed the Packwood case at all," said Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican.

WASHINGTON -- In a day of high drama on the Senate floor, Sen. Bob Packwood stood alone before his colleagues yesterday and pleaded with them not to force him to turn over diaries that may implicate him in criminal wrongdoing.Senate leaders canceled all other business and lawmakers slouched glumly in their seats, while senators debated whether the Oregon Republican should be compelled to comply with a subpoena issued by the Senate ethics committee.After more than seven hours of deliberations the Senate adjourned last night without resolving the bitter dispute between Mr. Packwood and the ethics committee, which wants to ask a U.S. district court to enforce the subpoena.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Packwood, in what is probably a final try to protect the secrecy of his personal diaries, asked Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist yesterday to postpone for many months Senate ethics investigators' review of those tapes and papers.The Oregon Republican's lawyers said that if Mr. Rehnquist or the full Supreme Court do not step in, the Senate Ethics Committee could start getting access to his papers next week, perhaps as early as Tuesday.He asked the chief justice to put off any Senate access to his diaries until after both a federal appeals court and, later, the Supreme Court could rule on his constitutional challenge to the Ethics Committee's subpoena for his diaries covering the past five years.

WASHINGTON -- Exactly 25 years ago, the voters of Oregon sent young Bob Packwood to Washington. And over the next quarter-century, he built a reputation as one of the capital's brightest stars.At his peak, in the mid-1980s, he chaired the Senate's most important committee -- Finance -- and seriously considered running for president. He personally shaped the 1986 tax reform law and was a leading supporter of abortion rights.Today, his brilliant career seems all but ruined. Yet Mr. Packwood, at 61, is refusing to let go. Critics, and even some sympathizers, believe the man who came to Washington to help others has become addicted to the exercise of power.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate is poised today to easily turn aside a challenge to the swearing-in of Bob Packwood despite complaints that the Oregon Republican won re-election to a fifth term by denying sexual harassment charges he later acknowledged.An intensive lobbying campaign aimed at 15 to 20 senators, including Maryland's Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, failed early last night to secure a commitment from even one senator to make sure the challenge is raised when the new Senate is sworn in at noon today.

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)

Attempted involuntary frivolity is a judicial misdemeanor.It's all a misunderstanding. When they taught him in Politician School to kiss babies, Bob Packwood thought he heard them say babes.

Also Thursday, an article about Sen. Bob Packwood should have stated that the Senate Ethics Committee is investigating allegations of sexual misconduct against the Oregon senator. According to the committee, the focus of its inquiry into Mr. Packwood's behavior involves "allegations of sexual misconduct, attempts to intimidate and discredit the alleged victims, and misuse of official staff in attempts to intimidate and discredit."The Sun regrets the errors.

Imagine paying someone $300,000 not to superintend the Baltimore County schools. A lot of competent people would be willing not to do it for much less.The Senate should hold full Packwood hearings, if only to reduce its time for mischief in other fields.

WASHINGTON -- A key Senate committee opened debate yesterday on a Republican welfare bill that scales back House-passed legislation but still proposes the most sweeping changes in the 60-year history of the nation's welfare system.Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee said they would seek changes in the bill crafted by the committee chairman, Sen. Bob Packwood.Most Democrats criticized the Oregon Republican's bill, though Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, called it a "solid plan."