Sex in the Senate: Bobby Baker's salacious secret history of Capitol Hill

politico ^ | November 19, 2013 | TODD S. PURDUM

[lowbridge]

On Jan. 1, 1943, Robert Gene Baker arrived in Washington at the height of World War II to become a Senate page. Two decades later, this son of a mailman from Pickens, S.C., had become the reigning Washington wheeler-dealer and fixer of his day as secretary to the Senate’s Democratic majority. In the era of President John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier, Baker was indispensable on Capitol Hill: The Man Who Knew Too Much

-snip

Still, prosecutors eventually caught up with Baker, if not his patron, and he ended up serving 18 months in prison on federal tax evasion charges. In 1978, he co-wrote Wheeling and Dealing, a rollicking memoir with Larry L. King, best known as the author of the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

But Baker in recent years quietly recorded an even more unvarnished account of his anything-goes-era in Washington, which Politico Magazine now publishes for the first time. His recollections—of an age when senators drank all day, indulged in sexual dalliances with secretaries and constituents, accepted thousands of dollars in bribes and still managed to pass the most important legislation of the 20th century—were collected by Donald Ritchie of the Senate Historical Office in interviews with Baker in 2009 and 2010. The resulting 230-page manuscript was so ribald and riveting, so salacious and sensational, that the Historical Office refrained from its usual practice of posting such interviews online.

[edcoil]

Kevin’s Law

[Vanbasten]

I always wondered who Reagan was referring to in one of his early speeches. I guess it was this fella.

[W.Lee]

Elizabeth Ray, she couldn’t type...she was just a hunt-n-pecker.

[Gaffer]

Bobby Baker - Republican - ribald and salacious?

Not one word about the brothers Kennedy who where the biggest whore hoppers in DC..

How about doing a story about how the two passed a drugged movie start between them and let her die?

How about how the third brother knocked up a girl and let her drown in a car in Chappaquiddick, or how the bereaved Kennedy family sold Widow Jacqueline to the highest frigging foreign bidder.

Not buying this, not even if it is the anniversary of Camelot wonder boy’s assassination.

[mrsmith]

Sex in the Senate
Coitus in the congress
Whoopie in the White House

I’d be a star headline writer...

[WilliamofCarmichael]

[Baker] had been as close as a son to Johnson, privy to the vice president’s deepest secrets. On Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, the tragedy of Kennedy’s assassination short-circuited the Baker investigation, and spared Johnson career-ending ignominy.

.. as well as, prison and very likely the electric chair.

IIRC the Kennedys had made it pretty clear that LBJ would not be on the ticket.. and Baker was the reason he'd be on a docket.

So the author just revealed the man who had the most compelling reason to organized the assassination.

I did not read the whole thing but I believe that those women around Baker, et al. the article talked about included the Ted Kennedy girls.

[Fiji Hill]

Several years ago, I read Baker's Wheeling and Dealing--Confessions of a Capitol Hill Operator (New York: Norton, 1978). It seems to be a work of fiction.

[untenured]

I’ve often wondered if we wouldn’t be better off if we simply legalized bribery of politicians as taxable income.

[elcid1970]

I hear she suffered from a strip-da-carcass infection.

;^)

[SkyPilot]

I read the entire piece.

The stories of the drunkenness, whoring, bribes, corruption are stunning, even if you are politically jaded.

Moreover, you see how legislation that we are still paying for today (government sanctioned discrimination, Medicaid, etc) was passed by bribes, booze, and BJs.

Disgusting.

I hope they enjoy their time in Hell, because those who engaged in those sins and did not confess to Christ will be there forever.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I need a breath of fresh air, after reading that garbage. What a creep!

[billhilly]

“Not one word about the brothers Kennedy who where the biggest whore hoppers in DC..”

Maybe you missed the part about the German “lady” and JFK.

[llevrok]

caucus in the caucus ?

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

Self-ping for later

[blueunicorn6]

Gosh. JFK was having an affair with an enemy spy and the Kennedy’s were going to throw LBJ off the ticket in 1964. What state was LBJ from? Wasn’t Kennedy shot while in Texas? My my my.........

[Safetgiver]

Right there is a man who created, supported and deified the problems that have led to the problems we have today. If someone did something unthinkable to him (know what I’m saying?) I would support the perpetrator with all the money I could muster.

[liberalh8ter]

I've pondered on what Hell must be like and I'm doing my best to avoid the experience but after having read this article, I believe it's filled with politicians who are making Satan's life.......Hell.