Conduct Unbecoming

By John Elson

It was as if Bob Packwood had suddenly become an unperson -- the Senator from Not. During freshman orientation time in Washington last week, 11 newly < elected Senators and 110 fledgling members of the House fumbled their way around Capitol Hill. But as they consulted with senior lawmakers about the bewilderingly complex rules of their august institutions, the office of Oregon's normally gregarious five-term Republican Senator was eerily silent, except for an occasional reporter's unwelcome call.

There was sufficient cause for Packwood's pariah status. His home state's Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence last week informed the Senate ethics committee that five more women had accused Packwood of sexual harassment. Those claims came in the wake of complaints by 10 campaign workers, lobbyists and senatorial staffers who had earlier told the Washington Post about his unwanted kisses and fondlings. In response to the Post story, the Senator denied specific charges but said he was sorry if his behavior had offended anyone.

Packwood, however, did not answer the latest accusations: he was incommunicado, undergoing diagnosis for possible alcohol abuse at an undisclosed treatment center. Some viewed this as a calculated dodge. "Packwood is playing the role of victim, using the alcoholism excuse," said Thomas Mann, an expert on congressional affairs for the Brookings Institution. "It's clear that he is overwhelmed and is trying to figure out how to manage this scandal."

At least some of Packwood's new accusers are expected to file formal charges with the ethics committee, which quickly announced -- after being elbowed by majority leader George Mitchell of Maine -- that it had begun a preliminary inquiry. Female voters in Oregon were particularly shocked by Packwood's alleged improprieties. After all, he had an established record as an advocate of women's causes, including abortion rights and family leave. (So had Democrat Brock Adams of Washington, who abandoned his re-election campaign in March after published charges, which he denied, that he had sexually abused women.)

Had the stories appeared before Nov. 3, Packwood might well have lost his costly ($7.8 million) re-election battle against Democrat Les AuCoin. A previous challenger for Packwood's seat, former state supreme court justice Betty Roberts, derided the implication that alcohol had caused the Senator's misbehavior as "an insult to the victims and the voters of Oregon. I think the only proper step for him to take now is to resign." Oregon Democrats were organizing a recall effort, even though legal experts say the state's law on $ recall does not apply to members of Congress.

Packwood will emerge from the treatment center to face some new realities. Sexual harassment of female aides is no longer a tolerated perk of his traditionally macho club: the six women Senators, four of them just elected, will surely do their best to see that the locker-room ethos of the upper house goes the way of cloture. Members of both House and Senate now worry that more past indiscretions will surface. Thanks to Anita Hill, Washington women have greater assurance that their careers will not suffer if they call a powerful boss to order. And experts on sexual harassment are telling them that reporting it early is the best response to an unwanted grope.

Has the Senate enough courage to discipline its own miscreants? The ethics committee is widely viewed as either an oxymoron or a bad joke, thanks to its wrist-slapping treatment of Senators implicated in the S & L scandal. The watchdog group Common Cause urged the committee to retain outside counsel for the Packwood investigation, since, as Common Cause president Fred Wertheimer noted, "very serious questions have been raised about the committee's performance in upholding and enforcing Senate rules and standards."

More optimistic is Harriet Woods, president of the National Women's Political Caucus. Accusations of sexual harassment constitute only one of many threats to the integrity of Congress, she argues. And with the institution under fire, leaders of both houses will henceforth be far more assertive in privately confronting members who have reportedly misbehaved and telling them to shape up. "They're not saying they get it," Woods says, "but they know the political consequences of harassment." Beyond that, 260 House members and 58 Senators have voluntarily pledged to follow the guidelines on sexual harassment that were drawn up last year by women's groups on Capitol Hill in the wake of Anita Hill's testimony.

As for Bob Packwood, he has to know one thing. Oregon voters -- both men and women -- will be closely watching what he does in the next six years.

With reporting by John Snell/Portland and Nancy Traver/Washington