Packwood

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Packwood, under investigation for more than two years over alleged sexual misconduct, said yesterday that he wants public hearings on the complaints against him and a "public cross-examination" of his female accusers.The surprise reversal by the Oregon Republican intensifies the spotlight on a controversy many senators hoped would just go away. It creates the possibility of another embarrassing spectacle for the Senate, akin to the 1991 hearings over alleged sexual harassment involving law professor Anita Hill and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

WASHINGTON -- Fighting to salvage a political career that is probably beyond salvation, Sen. Bob Packwood is having it both ways.With the approval of his Republican colleagues in the Senate, Packwood is avoiding public hearings at which the details of the charges of sexual misconduct against him might be spelled out by the women who have raised them. At the same time, the Oregon senator is using his position to conduct a public rebuttal of those undetailed charges in television and newspaper interviews.

Excruciating is the word for the Senate Ethics Committee as it contemplates the fallout of its party-line tie vote not to hold public hearings on sexual misconduct and abuse of office charges against Sen. Bob Packwood. It now must decide whether to censure the Oregon Republican, strip him of his chairmanship of the powerful Senate Finance Committee or expel him from its ranks.Republican senators who went to the mat for a colleague now find themselves under pressure to select a severe form of punishment.

SENATOR Packwood should not be a scandal. He should be a dance.Following in the great tradition of 1940s dances like the Shag and the Peabody, it will be called the Packwood. The dance steps can be found in the May report of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics:"In his Senate office in Portland, Oregon, Senator Packwood grabbed a staff worker, stood on her feet, grabbed her hair, forcibly pulled her head back, and kissed her on the mouth, forcing his tongue into her mouth. Senator Packwood also reached under her skirt and grabbed at her undergarments."

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 -- Concluding a nasty debate, the Republican-led Senate voted yesterday to protect Sen. Bob Packwood from having to face his accusers at public hearings on charges that he made unwanted sexual advances toward more than a dozen women.On a mostly party-line tally of 52-48, the Senate defeated an effort led by five female Democratic senators to overrule the Senate Ethics Committee. On Monday the committee rejected the idea of holding public hearings in the case against the Oregon Republican after deadlocking, 3-3, along party lines.

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.

It is hard to believe Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is opposing public Ethics Committee hearings on charges against fellow Republican Sen. Bob Packwood of Oregon. Senator Packwood stands accused of engaging in sexual misconduct with 17 women, obstructing a Senate committee investigation and abuse of office. "Accused" doesn't mean "guilty," but the Ethics Committee, of which Senator McConnell is chairman, has already found that there is "substantial credible evidence" that Senator Packwood behaved as charged.

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.

WASHINGTON -- For more than two years, the Senate has done its best to keep Sen. Bob Packwood's troubles on the back burner. But this week, they could be forced front and center, pushing the Senate into the last thing it wants: a replay of the Anita Hill disaster.Mr. Packwood is the Oregon Republican who is alleged to have approached women he was attracted to by grabbing them unexpectedly, forcing himself against them and kissing them.There were other accusations of official misconduct against the senator, including tampering with evidence, but they never caught the public imagination in the same way.Sen.