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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBob Packwood, Senator Forced to Quit in Sex Scandal, Dies at 93
Bob Packwood, a moderate Republican senator from Oregon who championed womens rights but was forced to resign in 1995 after his fellow senators threatened to expel him for making aggressive sexual advances toward more than 20 women, some of them his employees, died on Saturday in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He was 93.
His death, at a residential care facility, was confirmed by his wife, Elaine Franklin, in a statement. The couple often rented a vacation home in Rancho Mirage.
The case against Mr. Packwood, who had spent nearly half his life in the Senate, unfolded long before the #MeToo movement spurred society to take more seriously allegations of sexual misconduct against high-profile men. An inquiry by the bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Ethics dragged on for more than three years before the committee recommended unanimously that he be expelled.
That recommendation was based in part on Mr. Packwoods diary, in which he detailed his predatory behavior, including toward women he supervised. Twenty-two staff members I made love to, he boasted, and probably 75 others Ive had a passionate relationship with.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/06/us/politics/bob-packwood-dead.html
Aristus
(72,686 posts)About time you kicked the bucket, you sleazy bastard
The Madcap
(2,114 posts)It doesn't seem so long ago. How things have changed. He was a "moderate" Republican in trouble for a sex scandal. Neither of those things are possible anymore.
RandySF
(87,431 posts)He seemed like a genuinely good guy.