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Friday, September 8,1995 Page 2
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Packwood announces resignation from Senate
WASHINGTON — A teary-eyed
Sen. Bob Packwood announced his
resignation Thursday, heading off a
vote by colleagues to expel him for
allegations of sexual and official mis
conduct after 27 years in the Senate.
“It is the honorable thing to do,”
the Oregon Republican said in an
emotional speech shortly after leaders
of the Ethics Committee warned him
he would have to quit or face expul
sion. Packwood, who earlier vowed to
fight the charges, gave up less than 24
hours after the panel voted unani
mously to recommend that he be ex
pelled.
The committee, evenly divided
between Democrats and Republicans,
had spent 33 months on the investiga
tion. It concluded he should be ex
pelled after studying allegations that
he made unwanted sexual advances to
17 women, tried to obtain a job for his
then-estranged wife from people with
legislative interests, and altered his
diaries to obstruct the investigation.
Fellow Republican Mitch
McConnell, chairman of the Ethics
Committee, said the alteration of dia
ries as Packwood anticipated a com
mittee subpoena was “clearly illegal”
and could bring Packwood a prison
sentence if he were convicted of such
a crime. The committee’s resolution
referred the diary alterations to the
• Justice Department.
The sexual advances, McConnell
said, “were not merely stolen kisses,
as Sen. Packwood has claimed. This
was a habitual pattern of aggressive,
blatantly sexual advances, mostly di
rected at members of his own staff or
others whose livelihoods were con
nected in some way to his power and
authority.”
McConnell also disputed
Packwood’s complaint of unfairness,
saying, “The victimizer is now claim
ing the mantle of the victim.”
Packwood did not mention the al
legations in his Senate farewell, re
counting better times in his long ca
reer.
“1 leave this institution not with
malice but with love,” Packwood said,
his voice periodically breaking. “Good
luck. Godspeed.”
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole,
close to tears himself, praised his long
time colleague and declared: “I be
lieve Senator Packwood has made the
right decision. It’s not easy. It hasn’t
been easy.”
Other male colleagues also praised
Packwood for his Senate accomplish
ments. And one female senator, Demo
crat Dianne Feinstein of California,
said he shouldn’t be remembered for
the accusations that brought his de
parture.
She quoted her father as telling
her: “Don’t let a man be known for the
last thing he does. Let him be known
for the best thing he does.”
Several senators, including
McConnell, suggested earlier that the
expulsion recommendation snowed
senators had learned from the wrench
ing days of the Clarence Thomas Su
preme Court hearings.
Recalling criticism that senators
didn’t “get it” when a former aide
accused Thomas of unwanted sexual
advances, McConnell said,“Therecan
be no doubt today that the Ethics
Committee got it.”
Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., vice
chairman of the committee, said the
action recommended by the panel was
like “the atomic bomb” to answer
such criticism. “We can do no more
than to expel a member. Those days
are over.”
But Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,
said the resignation should not be
seen as a time to celebrate some new
awareness by senators about the rela
tionship between men and women.
“Let us not celebrate a thing today.
This is a day of grieving,” he said.
Another close Packwood friend,
Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., said
women’s groups who had once sup
ported Packwood’s political stands
had, in the end, turned on him.
“He was the man who always fought
so hard for women and their rights,”
said Simpson. “He was the man who
carried the banner for women’s repro
ductive rights.”
Packwood had called his staff into
a meeting at midaftemoon, closing
the office for about 15 minutes. Sev
eral staff members emerged crying
‘There have been many successes in these 27years,
some failures, some frustrations...Friendships
beyond count. ”
SEN. BOB PACKWOOD
after his resignation speech
afterward.
“There have been many successes
in these 27 years, sane failures, some
frustrations,” Packwood said as about
half the Senate and his staff looked
on. “Friendships beyond count.”
His colleagues sat dolefully in their
seats as he spoke. Aides lined the wall
at the back of the chamber.
Packwood’s resignation would el
evate Sen. William Roth of Delaware
to chairman of the tax-writing Fi
nance Committee at a vital time for
Republican efforts to implement their
balanced-budget plan.
Packwood, 62, was elected to the
Senate in 1968 and arrived at age 36
as the chamber’s youngest senator.
McConnell said resignation was
“the appropriate response” for
Packwood.
“I agree,” said Bryan, calling
Packwood’s behavior “unconscio
nable, unwanted, offensive, repug
nant.” —
Packwood on Wednesday had de
nied that he altered his original taped
diaries. He acknowledged that he al
tered copies of his diary tapes after he
gave the originals to his lawyers.
The copies were altered, he said,
because they contained “personally or
politically embarrassing information”
and he feared thatthey would be leaked
from his lawyers’ office.
In an interview, Packwood was
asked about his future. “If I had my
druthers, would I like to stay here?
Sure,” he said. But he added, “I’ve
talked with enough people who are
not here who say,' Gee it is amazing,
there is a life after the Senate.’”
Expulsion would have taken a two
thirds vote, or 67 of the 100 senators.
Fifteen senatorshave been expelled,
one in 1797 and 14 during the Civil
War for supporting the Confederacy.
The Senate in 1877 posthumously re
versed the decision for one of the Civil
War expellees.
In the House only four members
have been expelled, three in 1861 and
one in 1980.
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9
Simpson unlikely to be
called before defense rests
LOS ANGELES — 0J. Simpson decided
not to testify in his own defense after his lawyers
told him it would prolong his trial and wasn’t
necessary to answer a prosecution case “in
shambles,” one of his lawyers said Thursday.
The confirmation that Simpson would not
tell his story to jurors came from F. Lee Bailey
after lead attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. argued
unsuccessfully to have former Detective Mark
Fuhrman be die final defense witness.
Judge Lance Ito rejected the defense’s at
I tempt to recall Fuhrman and force him to
invoke his Fifth Amendment right to remain
silent in front of the juiy.
On Wednesday outside the jury’s presence,
Fuhrman invoked that right when the defense
asked him questions, including whether he
planted evidence against Simpson.
Ito said he would tell the jury that Fuhrman
became “unavailable,” although he will not tell
them why. The judge also said he would tell the
jury they can consider Fuhrman’s unavailabil
ity a factor in evaluating his credibility.
Prosecutor Marcia Clark opposed the in
struction, but Ito snapped back, “Counsel, I’ve
ruled. That’s a final ruling.”
But a few minutes later, Ito granted the
prosecution until noon Friday to appeal.
Bailey told The Associated Press that
Simpson’s legal team advised the celebrity de
fendant not to testify in light of Fuhrman’s tape
recorded statements about racism and police
wrongdoing.
“With the case in shambles, this just wasn’t
necessary,” Bailey said of Simpson’s decision.
“I didn’t see what was left to be gained, when
you have the chief witness, a law enforcement
officer, refusing to testify because he might
incriminate himself.”
Bailey said that whether Simpson would
testify wasn’t decided until recent disclosures
thrust Fuhrman and his racist tapes back into
the forefront, climaxing in Fuhrman’s dra
matic appearance Wednesday.
Fuhrman’s lawyer, meanwhile, publicly
apologized for the former detective’s racist
comments, made during interviews with an
aspiring screenwriter from 1985 to 1994.
“All I can tell you is that Mark Fuhrman
regrets the inconvenience and harm that he has
caused a lot of innocent people to suffer,”
attorney Darryl Mounger told KCBS-TV.
“That’s all I can really tell you.... He’s sorry,
and I don’t know if that’s enough.”
As the defense moved to wrap up its nine
week case, defense attorney Gerald Uelmen
pressed Ito to let jurors hear Fuhrman invoke
his Fifth Amendment rights in person, or at
least tell them what he did.
The judge refused to tell jurors about
Fuhrman’s invocation but said jurors would be
informed that the detective was “unavailable”
as a witness.
Uelmen said the jury has a right to all
information that would help them assess
Fuhrman’s credibility, and Fuhrman’s refusal
to testify was critical. Fuhrman’s witness stand
appearance came during a hearing on a defense
motion to suppress a bloody glove and other
evidence collected by Fuhrman and other detec
tives the day after the bodies of Nicole Brown
Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found.
Ito rejected the defense bid first thing Thurs
day morning, saying Fuhrman’s explanation
for entering Simpson’s estate without a warrant
can still be trusted because it was confirmed by
other detectives.
“The testimony of Fuhrman ... is corrobo
rated by the testimony of other witnesses,” Ito
wrote in a two-page ruling.
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