Representative Flood Eyes His Act

When the President signs a bill, the White House traditionally invites interested Congressmen to the Oval Office for ceremonial photographs. So it was last week with the black-lung bill to increase benefits for disabled coal miners, and among the invited legislators was Democratic Congressman Dan Flood of Pennsylvania. For Flood, who is under investigation for numerous influence-peddling schemes, the chance for some flackery instead of flak was a godsend. Flood showed up early at the Oval Office and anchored himself behind the presidential chair. Party leaders began jostling to get the Congressman off center stage. No words were spoken. Flood, grabbing the chair tightly, would not budge.

When Carter appeared, he sized up the problem and mumbled to Flood that he had been reading about him in the papers. Then he signed the bill. And Flood got his picture taken.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.