November 29, 1978

Throw Up or Throw Out

Whatever happened to that venerable political custom of "Throw the rascals out"?

If we are to believe our history books, the American electorate has always reacted to skullduggery in office by voting miscreants out of office.

The recent election, however, casts doubt on the morality of either the past or present.  Former officials got away with crimes undetected, or we have developed a tolerance for scandal in high places.

More than a few Congressmen who ought to be in prison, instead were reelected to make laws for the rest of us who live in fear of arrest for jay walking.

The most despicable miscarriage of justice is that which returned Representative Frederick C.  Richmond of New York to office.  He confessed soliciting sex from two teenaged boys.  He said he was sorry he got caught and promised to see a psychiatrist if the judge would let him go.  Wiping away a tear, the judge suspended sentence.  The voters rewarded Richmond's candor with another term in which to demonstrate that perversion can be beautiful.

Wayne Hays, who left Congress after committing adultery at taxpayers' expense, decided he had been hasty.  Running for the Ohio legislature, he won easily.

The victory hardest to understand, perhaps, is that of Charles C. Diggs of Detroit, Michigan.  Though convicted of defrauding the government with phony payrolls, he was returned to Washington as a hero.  Inner city blacks apparently consider it an accomplishment to rip off the establishment.

For the same reason, the 12 black Cleveland councilmen, indicted for accepting bribes from carnival operators, have been able to mobilize a propaganda campaign charging racial discrimination.  Only the lone white councilman should stand trial.

Congresswoman Mary Oakar of Cleveland also received a carnival check which to date has not been satisfactorily explained.

Other Congressmen involved in acts that should banish them to private life, if not prison, are Daniel Flood of Pennsylvania, indicted on 10 counts of bribery; Edward R. Roybal of California, charged with accepting bribes from South Korea; and Charles H. Wilson of California, also named in the South Korean scandal.

It is true that two Democrats and two Republicans touched by charges of unsavory conduct were defeated in their bids for reelection.

Representative Joshua Eilberg of Pennsylvania was indicted on charges of taking money for his help in arranging a federal grant to a Philadelphia hospital.  John McFall, former majority whip, was reprimanded by the House on charges of misusing a $3,000 contribution from South Korean Businessman Tongsun Park.

The two Republicans thrown out by voters were Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts who lied about his finances to his wife's divorce lawyer; and Congressman J.  Herbert Burke of Florida who got drunk in a Fort Lauderdale go-go club.

Republicans are quick to point out that all the confessed and accused law breakers reelected were Democrats.

Republicans were thrown out of office for rather minor transgressions.  Democrats, on the whole, survived crimes against the nation.

There does seem to be a double standard of political conduct.  A third-rate burglary by Conservative Nixon precipitated a constitutional crisis, while assassinations of foreign leaders by Liberal Kennedy were no barrier to a Perpetual Flame.

A large part of the disproportionate involvement of Democrats in suspicious activity results from the greater opportunity for a party of long-held, over-whelming majority.  The Tea Pot Dome scandal of the Harding administration, for example, followed a long period of Republican domination.

All of the foregoing suggests a great need in America to reestablish a strong, two-party system of government whereby the adversaries effectively check and balance each other.

Television, and the human desire to dodge personal responsibility, has encouraged a Big Brother outlook.  The selection of our representatives has degenerated into popularity contests.  The winners are those who promise the most – a process that favors the unscrupulous.

Legislators readily admit that the most important part of their jobs these days is "constituency service." They make more brownie points answering mail, guiding visitors through the Capitol and pressing the flesh back home than in being statesmen.

It is a fact of political life that we get the kind of representation we deserve.  There are rascals in public office because there are rascals hiding in the nature of all of us.  Too often we support crooks so long; as we get a piece of the action.

Fortunately for the republic - and the human race -common sense and morality eventually overtake us.

It is either throw up or throw out.

We can take heart in the realization that rascality is self purging.

Author: Lindsey Williams