Rascals Return

For a brief period in the 1970s, beginning with the expurgation from Government of the Watergate gang, Americans flirted with the idea of demanding personal morality in high places. That rush to morality may be ebbing.

Charles Diggs, for 24 years a Congressman from Detroit, and a founder of the House's black caucus, was convicted last month on 29 counts of mail fraud and misappropriation of Government funds. Though eleven of the twelve jurors who convicted him were black, Diggs implied to his constituents that he was being persecuted by white justice. Last week he was re-elected with 80% of the vote.

Daniel Flood, 74, the former Shakespearean actor who has represented the district around Wilkes-Barre, Pa., for 30 years, was indicted last month for taking more than $60,000 in bribes for using his influence with federal agencies. His constituents sent him back to Congress with 54% of the vote.

Frederick Richmond, a wealthy white manufacturer of stereo components who represents a black and Hispanic area of Brooklyn, confessed to offering money to a 16-year-old black male youth for sex. Richmond works hard for his district, however, and uses his wealth for charitable activities there. He won re-election by beating a field of three other candidates.

California Congressmen Charles H. Wilson and Edward Roybal were reprimanded by the House last month for not reporting, as required, $1,000 gifts from Koreagate's master briber, Tongsun Park. Hispanic Leader Roybal's supporters used Diggs' line of defense: suggesting that he was getting harsh treatment because of his ethnic background. He and Wilson were handily reelected.

Not everyone got off, however. Congressman John McFall, reprimanded with his two California colleagues for taking Tongsun Park's gifts, lost. So did Philadelphia Congressman Joshua Eilberg, indicted for taking legal fees to help secure federal funds for a local hospital. Former Senator and Watergate Committee Member Edward Gurney of Florida, who was accused but acquitted of taking bribes for Government favors and lying to a grand jury, was defeated in a race for the House. And Florida Congressman Herbert Burke, charged with resisting arrest, disorderly intoxication and trying to influence a witness after an incident in a nude go-go club, was turned out of office.

The election nonetheless could provide hope of another chance for every sinner. Former Congressman Wayne Hays, employer of the premiere nontyping secretary, Elizabeth Ray, won election last week to the Ohio general assembly with 52% of the vote.

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