REPORTING CAN BRING HEARTACHES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200300114-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 20, 1999
• Sequence Number: 114
• Publication Date: March 24, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

WASHINGTON POST
AND TIMES HERALD
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP7
MAR 2 4 1966
i~ 'en~>l? '-Go-nolr a~{
1 The Washington
By Drew Pearson
A lot of,people'have been
writing Jack Anderson and
me about Sen. 'Thomas ., J.
Dodd .,(D-Conn.). Some have
praised then :u..f
head of Alabama, may have and Bankhead had another
died because of an earlier col- aftermath. Congress had -just
umn series oneconflict of in. passed a lobbying law, and a
terest. His family, who were young New, York lawyer, Irv-
ing Kauffman, had ' come
good friends of mine (his down from New York to en-
brother, Speaker Will Bank- force it. He didn't know much
Sen. Joseph McCarthy and
how he had used thousands of
dollars sent him by patriotic
citizens. to investigate com-
munism for his own personal
speculation in the commodity
market.
lgardin,;_ his
be so mean to
a fine man
nism? They rearsou '
imply that because we have
,exposed an enemy 'of com-
;munism we must be pro-Com-
munist.
I haven't had a chance to
!reply to most of these letters,
'but the answer is that we
don't get any kick out of ex-
:posing-or as some people put
it, ;"crucifying"-any one Sen-
ator. It's the Senate standards,
,the rules of conduct, that are
important.
Reporting on these things Is
by no means pleasant. In the
first place, it's a terrific job
to dig out all the material-
Jack Anderson has been taken
away from all other work in
order to report on Sen. Dodd.
The material ' just doesn't fall
in your lap from a disgruntled
employe, as Dodd has Insin-
uated. In the second . place,
this kind of reporting some-
times leads to very unhappy
house), always blamed me for wandering around aimlessly (D-Mo.), Carl Hayden (D-Ariz.), '
the Senator's death. looking for something to sink and Robert Hendrickson (R-
You feel terrible when this his teeth into when we sug- N.J.) went into even more de
kind of thing happens, *But gested that he look into the tail on McCarthy's specula-
you don't know when you commpdity market , operators tion. However, the Senate nev-;
start investigating that a Sen. who had been working with er acted on it.
ator has a weak heart; and Sens. Thomas and Bankhead, When it did finally get'
you don't always know how to see whether they had vio- around to censuring McCarthy
deep a conflict . of interest lated the lobbying -act by in, two years later, it was not for;
runs. fluencing the cotton market using other people's money to
without registering as lobby- gamble on the commodity
Casualty of a Column ists. market but for his conduct of
In Bankhead's case, the col- Kauffman promptly had the .the Army-McCarthy hearings.
umn, after long and expensive speculators indicted and, part- The man who, had the cour-
research on the commodity ly as a result of the attendant age to press for the censure
market In New York, had dis- publicity, he went on, to be- of Joe McCarthy in 1952 was
covered in 1946 that Bank- come' a U.S. judge, 'and. in-.a Senator of unusual courage-
-head and Sen. Elmer Thomas cidentally a close friend of because few Senators will:
of Oklahoma, both Democrats, Sen. Dodd. 'They, are bosom move against a member of the'
had an arrangement with a witchhunters. club. He was Sen. WilliAm
New York broker to Invest in - Benton (D-Conn.) and because
cotton just a few hours before What Is Senate Ethics? of Benton's courage, Mc-
they made a 'speech urging Significantly, the. Senate'did Carthy invaded Connecticut in
the end of wartime controls not move to censure or dispi. 1952 and defeated him. Two
on cotton. pline Sen. Thomas for using years later the people of Con-;
Cotton was scarce at that the high privilege of the Sen- necticut realized their mistake
time, shortly after the war, ate floor to influence the when in 1954 McCarthy was
and their speeches sent up price of cotton and cash in on censured.
the price. After each speech it. It was Benton's* ' defeat
they made money on the com- This has become more or which made an opening for
modity market. So did the less' standard practice where the election of Sen. Dodd.,
brokers who were in cahoots a Senator's finances are eon- Note: In the opinion of this
with them. cerned,. and the Ethics Com- writer, the vast -majority of, I
When I-published this, Sen. mittee today Is ' carefully Senators are scrupulously
Bankhead died of a heart at- avoiding a probe of Dodd's. fi- honest. But they are not scru-
tack, and Sen. Thomas later nances. ' pulous about protecting, their"
was defeated by the voters of In 1952 this colu#in pub- reputations .by policing their
Oklahoma. ' .( lished ' many'details' on the membership.
One man, Sen. John Bank The ; columns on' Thomas commodity speculation. of 1066, zi.n-McClur. Syndicate, Tao
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA,RDP75-0.0149R000200300114-4