Word: nunn
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...collegial mood changed abruptly on Jan. 31 with the testimony of Paul Weyrich, an archconservative spokesman for right-wing causes. Weyrich openly declared that he had seen the nominee drunk in public and with women other than his wife. That caused the committee's teetotaling chairman Sam Nunn to ask Tower pointedly and in front of television cameras whether he had "any alcoholic problem." Replied Tower: "I have none, Senator. I am a man of some discipline...
Quizzed behind closed doors, Weyrich was unable to cite specific incidents of Tower's misbehavior, but the genie was out of the bottle. The committee was inundated by telephone calls, many anonymous, reporting "sightings" of Tower misbehaving in public. The White House asked Nunn to delay a committee vote while some of the accusations were being checked out by the FBI. Referring to the leaks to the press, Tower privately protested, "They've practically got me dancing naked on top of a piano...
...Nunn raised the possibility of a closed Senate session at one point to air the numerous sensitive allegations against Tower, although he said he hoped to avoid one. He also raised the possibility of making the transcripts of closed committee sessions public, but no Republican followed...
...Nunn (D-Ga), Armed Services Committee chair, opened the debate, saying Tower's "record of alcohol abuse cannot be ignored...
...talking about the secretary of interior, we're talking about someone next to the president at the very top of the nuclear chain of command," Nunn said...