Defiant Traficant ups the `red-face factor'

0 Comments | Insight on the News, June 24, 2002 | by Jamie Dettmer

Since the 1970s more than a dozen congressmen have been convicted of charges ranging from bribery to tax evasion and even sexual misconduct--nearly all of them quickly read the writing on the wall and cleared out before their fellow politicians could expel them.

That's what Fofo Sunia, the Democratic delegate from American Samoa, did in 1988, resigning as the House Ethics Committee was preparing to act following his guilty plea to defrauding the government in a "ghost"-employee case. Likewise Illinois Democratic Rep. Mel Reynolds, convicted in 1995 of sexual misconduct with an underage campaign volunteer, didn't hang around after his colleagues made clear he needed to go. He, too, resigned from the House.

Reynolds' reasonably speedy exit came before he was convicted in a separate case of siphoning campaign money for personal use and probably was helpful in obtaining a presidential pardon for the financial-misconduct conviction from the outgoing Bill Clinton.

But, true to character, a quiet bow out isn't what Rep. James Traficant (D-Ohio) intends. Apparently he plans to become only the second member of Congress in U.S. history to be expelled from the House because of corruption.

Convicted in Cleveland in April on 10 counts of financial misconduct, including taking bribes, receiving kickbacks, racketeering and tax evasion, the flamboyant and unabashed Traficant is preparing an appeal. He has left Capitol Hill agog with his vintage defiance of the clear will of his colleagues, who believe it is time for him to depart--preferably ahead of a likely failed appeal bid and before he is sentenced.

Another jury, this time of Traficant's legislative peers, the House Standards of Official Conduct Committee, already is moving ahead to expel the nine-term Democrat. Republicans and Democrats have sought to nudge and coax him toward resignation, but even expulsion motions filed by Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) have failed to persuade Traficant that it is time to call it quits.

Traficant could get as many as 10 years in federal prison according to federal guidelines when he comes up for sentencing on June 27, but in the meantime the same angry spirit that saw him defend himself on the financial-misconduct charges is inspiring him to dare the House to do its worst. So far the lawmakers have held off, hoping that he will cave in to the pressure.

The disgraced Ohio congressman says he's eager to make his case on the floor of the chamber against expulsion, no doubt dressed in his trademark polyester or denim, a skinny knit tie and cowboy boots. That is something the House is desperate to avoid in this election year.

"The red-face factor would be huge," says a Democratic lawmaker, who fears that Traficant wouldn't confine himself to repeating claims that his trial and conviction was a "political vendetta" by the government but that he likely would go on the attack to heighten the embarrassment of his squirming fellows.

According to Sensenbrenner, "Felons belong in jail and not in Congress" Technically that may be true, but Congress has a history of felons serving on Capitol Hill after conviction, although they have done so after doing their time as well. Traficant could have a field day reeling off the names of convicted felons who have served in Congress, including the irrepressible James Michael Curley, a two-term congressman, four-term mayor and governor of Massachusetts. He did five months in the federal slammer for mail fraud, only to be pardoned by Harry Truman and return to complete his last term as mayor of Boston.

Traficant even may point over at Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), a former federal judge impeached by the House in 1988 on charges of conspiring to take a bribe. Of course, Hastings tater was acquitted of the charge in a criminal trial.

The no-holds-barred populist that he is, Traficant might not stop there and could have destructive fun taunting his colleagues about who present deserves to be convicted. That would undermine Sanchez's aim of demonstrating to the American people that Traficant "is just one bad apple out of the whole bunch."

And it would guarantee the Ohio congressman the pleasure of going out with a histrionic bang rather than a whimper, which seemed to be the main motivation behind the bizarre and blustering defense he mounted at his Cleveland trial. As Traficant has said before, he's "never been one to back out."

On some levels the Traficant bluster appears to be running out of power. It worked, of course, in 1983 when he beat the charges made against him of receiving bribes from Youngstown-area mob figures during his 1980 race for Mahoning County sheriff. According to Traficant the feds wanted payback for that acquittal, hence the Cleveland case.

But his unabashedly surreal populism failed to impress the Cleveland jury, and professional courtesy eventually will run out even on Capitol Hill, though no doubt not before Traficant extracts some vengeance. To the horror of the national political elite, he plans to run this fall as an independent in his old district. And he has a chance of doing well.