Rogues' Gallery

"A Congressman is a hog!" Henry Adams once wrote of the legislators of the Gilded Age. "You must take a stick and hit him on the snout!" Less dyspeptic observers argue that most legislators are honest and dedicated, but the record of the past few years has not been entirely reassuring: February 1976. Representative Andrew Hinshaw, 56, California" Republican, was sentenced to one to 14 years in jail for soliciting and accepting bribes during his 1972 election campaign. May-September 1976.

Representative Wayne Hays, 68, Ohio Democrat and chairman of the House Administration Committee, was investigated by the House Ethics Committee and the Justice Department on charges of financial improprieties as well as keeping his mistress, Elizabeth Ray, on his official payroll. He resigned in September 1976. June 1976. Representative Henry Helstoski, 54, New Jersey Democrat, was indicted for taking bribes from Chilean and Argentine aliens to introduce bills blocking their deportation.

July 1976. Representative Robert Sikes, 73, Florida Democrat, was reprimanded by his colleagues for "financial misconduct" involving conflict of interest.

December 1976. Representative James Hastings, 53, New York Republican, was convicted and later sentenced to up to five years for taking kickbacks from congressional employees.

August 1977. Tongsun Park, a Korean businessman, was indicted for bribery and later testified that he had made payoffs to 31 legislators. Eighteen-month congressional investigations of "Koreagate" led to little action. The only man actually imprisoned was former Congressman Richard Hanna, 65, California Democrat, who was sentenced to a 2 1/2-year prison term. Otto Passman, 79, Louisiana Democrat, was brought to trial but acquitted. Charles H. Wilson, John McFall and Edward Roybal, all California Democrats, were reprimanded by the House, but Wilson and Roybal are still there.

September-October 1978. Representative Daniel Flood, 76, Pennsylvania Democrat, was indicted for taking more than $50,000 in bribes. His trial ended in a hung jury. Flood, who has suffered a variety of illnesses, resigned his seat. A federal judge last week ruled him mentally competent to face retrial later this month.

October 1978. Representative Joshua Eilberg, 59, Pennsylvania Democrat, was indicted for receiving illegal compensation. He lost his re-election race that fall and changed his plea to guilty at his February 1979 trial. He got a $10,000 fine and five years' probation.

November 1978. Representative Charles Diggs Jr., 57, Michigan Democrat and founder and former chairman of the Black Caucus, was sentenced to up to three years for taking more than $60,000 in kickbacks from his employees. He was re-elected that same year.

October 1979. Senator Herman Talmadge, 66, influential Georgia Democrat, was officially "denounced" by the Senate for misappropriating office funds and campaign donations for personal use. A federal grand jury is still investigating.

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