Word: packwood
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...panel's 10-volume, 40-lb., 10,145-page record, there were ample depositions, affidavits and a 174-page bill of particulars to document those charges. There were also diary excerpts that revealed a vain, lecherous, insecure man still caught in the clutches of adolescence. In a 1989 entry, Packwood described an office encounter with a female staff member. "'Would you like to dance?' She says, 'I'd love to.' So I slipped around the side of this gigantic desk and we danced. Boy, she wrapped her arms around my neck...I knew and she knew what we were both...
Though such tidbits made for both titillating and amusing reading, McConnell made clear that in his view, the most serious charge was that Packwood attempted to obstruct the investigation by "deliberately altering and destroying relevant portions of his diaries." He told reporters that the obstruction charge would be referred to the Justice Department and that, if found guilty of obstruction, Pack wood could face a prison sentence of up to 16 months. Justice officials confirmed that they plan to launch an investigation but warned that the case was hardly open and shut, since they would have to prove that Packwood...
Throughout the 33-month investigation, Packwood's unrepentant hostility appalled the Ethics Committee, which is accustomed to deference and some measure of groveling. Instead of quickly coming clean on the sexual-misconduct charges, he essentially denied knowledge of his lewd behavior by blaming alcohol and charging his accusers of lying, a maneuver that served only to bring forward new complainants and to persuade the committee to investigate charges that Packwood was intimidating potential witnesses. Instead of complying with the committee's demand that he surrender his diaries, Packwood first tried to threaten colleagues, warning that his memoirs would expose other...
...Packwood kept on irritating the ethics panel right up to the moment of his resignation, greeting their recommendation with a stunning lack of remorse. "This process makes the Inquisition look like a study in fairness," he blustered soon after the panel's vote. Point by point, he sought to dilute the committee's charges. "I am accused of kissing women," he said. "Not drugging, not robbing. Kissing." That in vited McConnell to respond, "These were not merely stolen kisses" but rather "physical coercion" directed primarily at women who depended on Packwood for their livelihood. Packwood's eleventh-hour demand...
...Indeed Packwood seemed intent on pulling levers even after his resignation. Friday morning he sauntered onto the Senate floor, behaving as if he planned to play the Finance chairman's role in shepherding wel fare-reform legislation. After word circulated that Packwood, who will keep his pension and health benefits, worth $88,922 annually, had cut a deal to stay on for 90 days-a charge Dole vehemently denied--the majority leader announced that Packwood would leave office on Oct. 1 and surrender his chairmanship immediately. Now, with the less seasoned William Roth of Delaware heading Finance, Dole must manage...