
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990                   TAG: 9007200191
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

HOUSE PANEL RECOMMENDS REPRIMAND

The House ethics committee has decided to recommend that the House reprimand Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., for actions related to his relationship with a male prostitute, congressional sources said Thursday.

The decision, which will be announced today, was unanimous among the 11 members of the 12-member ethics panel who were present. Rep. Larry E. Craig, R-Idaho, was out of town Thursday, but is expected to agree with the recommendation to reprimand Frank, one of two openly gay members of the House.

A reprimand is the least punitive of the official sanctions that the committee can recommend, but it must be put to a vote by the full House. Other, more serious official sanctions that require a House vote are censure and expulsion. A vote on the Frank punishment is expected next week.

A spokesman for Frank said he would have no comment on the issue until the ethics committee releases its report, which will be done today.

The decision to recommend a reprimand centers on two actions Frank took on behalf of the prostitute, Stephen Gobie, a convicted felon who was living in Frank's home. Frank acknowledged that he fixed parking tickets Gobie received while driving Frank's car and that he wrote letters on his congressional letterhead to court officials supervising Gobie's probation from his conviction on drug and sodomy charges.

In deciding to recommend a reprimand, the committee broke a logjam over the controversial case, which has been before the ethics panel since last September. Committee Democrats had persistently sought to resolve the case by issuing only a letter of reproval to Frank, but several GOP members of the panel resisted, holding out for a stronger sanction that would require action by the House.

Democrats on the committee ultimately gave in, sources said, in order to break the deadlock and prevent a bruising floor fight in which their party could be portrayed as defending homosexual conduct. Democrats believed that the House would have ultimately increased the sanction from a letter of reproval to at least a reprimand in any case.

by CNB