On Capitol Hill, they were whispering that Washington's sex scandal had the makings of a congressional Watergate. It was hardly that important, but one could find some major similarities. There were incriminating secret tapes, this time recording the libidinous affairs of legislators. A mighty politician was certain to lose the power that he had wielded so arrogantly, and others were likely to cut short their careers. Additional Congressmen and Senators wondered anxiously whether they would be named in the expanding investigation. And again, there were worries of a possible coverup, for potential witnesses knew that if they told all, they would risk losing their congressional jobs.
In a capital where sex is easily available, indiscretions are winked at and power is the ultimate aphrodisiac, the big question was whether a number of Congressmen had put pliant young women on their payrolls purely (or impurely) for personal pleasure. Mere hanky-panky would hardly be criminal, but disclosures of it would be poison at the polls. Worse, sex at taxpayers' expense can lead to charges of fraud.
Election Fears. These were the reverberations from the confession of Elizabeth Ray, 33, a comely if shopworn blonde, that she had been employed as a $14,000-a-year congressional committee clerk by Wayne Hays; the Ohio Democrat, for the sole purpose of being one of his sexual playmates. Hays, 65, and apparently insatiable, admitted the relationship but protested unpersuasively that Ray had done other work too. Few of the many men who had encountered Liz during her four years on Capitol Hill knew of any talents beyond the bedroom. Congressional Democrats pressed for Hays to resign his committee chairmanships, and even the reputation of House Speaker Carl Albert was at stake. Orgies were reported to have taken place in a Capitol Hill office assigned to Albert.
At week's end the beleaguered Albert announced that he will quit at the end of his present term. "During my early years in the House, I decided I should not serve beyond my 70th year," said Albert, 68. "That is long enough."
Top Democrats were alarmed that the sex scandal might hurt their party's congressional candidates in November. Liz had worked for three Congressmen since 1972, all Democrats: Hays, South Carolina's Mendel Davis and Illinois' Kenneth Gray (who retired in 1974). Moreover, Hays is one of the most powerful of Democrats, a man who has signed all the checks flowing to his party's candidates from his Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Said one Republican congressional leader: "I'm not going to help them solve this."
Democrats were hoping that Ray had been sexually bipartisan. Though she did seem to favor the majority party, it was widely reported that one of the Senators with whom she was involved was a prominent Republican. But the Chicago Tribune's sensational report last week that she had tapes of her liaisons with 13 Congressmen and two Senators—recorded on a voice-activated machine secreted under her well-used bed—was incorrect.