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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 7, 1995                   TAG: 9509070079
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: THE BOSTON GLOBE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

PANEL: EXPEL PACKWOOD

The Senate Ethics Committee, in a stunning decision, Wednesday recommended unanimously that Sen. Bob Packwood be expelled from Congress after charges brought nearly three years ago that he had made unwanted sexual advances against numerous women, including members of his staff, during his 26 years in office.

``The committee has been the judge, jury and the prosecution,'' Packwood, an Oregon Republican, said bitterly during a news conference late Wednesday. ``This process makes the inquisition look like a study in fairness.'' Packwood, who heads the powerful Finance Committee, said he had not decided whether he would resign.

At least 67 members of the Senate must vote to expel a senator. The Ethics Committee said in a statement that it would ask Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole to schedule a vote on the matter promptly, and some senators predicted the full Senate would go along with the committee's recommendation.

If the resolution fails, the committee then will ask the Senate to vote to censure Packwood, strip him of his Finance chairmanship and strip him of his seniority. A simple majority is needed for the second resolution.

New Hampshire Sen. Robert Smith, a Republican member of the ethics panel, said the committee is firmly committed to ousting Packwood based on its investigation.

``This is the highest possible, most extreme punishment that a colleague in the Senate can invoke against another colleague,'' Smith said. ``I would not vote for such an extreme penalty if I had any doubts that it was ... warranted.''

Packwood said Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican and chairman of the ethics committee, told him that each member of the panel had a different reason for wanting to expel him.

Only 15 senators have been expelled in U.S. history, all of them before the Civil War. The last senator to face expulsion was Sen. Harrison A. Williams, Democrat of New Jersey, who faced a charge of corruption in 1982. He resigned just before the full Senate was expected to expel him. Packwood can remain as a senator until the full Senate acts. It is up to Dole - one of Packwood's closest associates - to schedule the vote.

Packwood, however, was defiant in the face of the gravity of his situation.

``I am accused of kissing women,'' he said. ``On occasion, of overeagerly kissing women. Not drugging, not robbing - kissing. And when rebuffed, never kissing again,'' he said, adding that there has been only one charge of an incident occurring in the last 12 years.

The committee made three key findings:

Packwood ``endeavored to obstruct and impede the committee's inquiry by withholding, altering and destroying relevant evidence, including his diary transcripts and audiotaped diary material.''

Packwood ``repeatedly committed misconduct, making at least 18 unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances between 1969 and 1990.'' The committee said most of the victims were members of Packwood's staff or people whose livelihoods were dependent upon Packwood.

Packwood ``abused his position of power and authority as a United States senator by engaging in a deliberate and systematic plan to enhance his personal financial position by soliciting, encouraging and coordinating employment opportunities for his wife from persons who had a particular interest in legislation or issues that Sen. Packwood could influence.''

by CNB