Wait, what?! Is the job only open to those who can't keep their hands off the help?

There's a good chance that Packwood learned his lesson with the unanimous vote for him to hit the bricks in 1995. It's also been 15 years.

It's too bad, too. He was a damn good Senator, and he didn't even kill anyone like a certain Senator from Massachusetts...

Despite the personal problems, he is very knowledgeable on taxation. Give his comments strong consideration.

he is very knowledgeable on taxation

Indeed. Packwood was singlehandedly (his other hand was busy) responsible for increasing the tax code's complexity by several orders of magnitude.

As I recall Sen. Packwood was the point man on simplifying the tax code, around 1986 maybe. It's gotten way more complex again since then. In this op-ed piece he's quite right. Having the government do more for us means higher taxes that must be paid by somebody or everybody. While I happily voted for Mr. Obama I am concerned that he will have the government do much more and thereby add more cost and debt on the taxpayers--that's us. And this is in addition to "W's" fiscal disaster of two endless wars.

And I'm still with Bob Packwood with the main exception being the estate tax. We need that to keep some balance between the rich and the middle and lower classes. Otherwise the rich just get richer.

And Zussman's vendeta against Packwood still profoundly offends me.

Way too risky...his personal problems continue to plague him. Creepy old man to this day.

I always thought there was more than met the eye with Packwood, the Dirty Old Man.

A good friend's dad worked as an aid to Packwood and never saw evidence of womanizing.

Another friend, a woman who at the time had a bright shock of red hair, attended a dinner where he spoke in the Dalles. A month or so later, she was surprised to find herself pictured in Newsweek shaking her finger at the senator above the caption: "Brandishing charges of sexual harassment."

In fact,she was scolding him for his inability to prevent the Columbia Gorge Scenic Act from being passed before it was written. She hired a "prominent" Portland lawyer to sue Newsweek, but the guy let the statute of limitations run.

"Creepy old man to this day."

Y'know the funny thing in all of this was that Packwood was the biggest women's rights advocate in the Senate (even if he was a Repub.) Funny how piling on works.

Ex-Sen Bob bragged a few years ago about his financial success since he stopped talking to the Oregonian, saying he was doing better as a private citizen than as a senator. So his opposition to taxing the wealthy may be nothing more than self-interest.

The estate tax doesn't affect the wealthy who plan properly. It's mostly hits the naive, the ignorant, the neglectful, the misinformed, and the delusional.

Packwood's a zombie politician. Don't let him get your brains.

When he was living, Robert the Girdle-hiker was a women's rights advocate mostly because he figured it was a chick magnet ("c'mon, just one little kiss") -- and those abortion rights could sure come in handy to an ambitious cad like him.

Packwood and Breedlove. Make up your own joke.

"The estate tax doesn't affect the wealthy who plan properly. It's mostly hits the naive, the ignorant, the neglectful, the misinformed, and the delusional."

That the wealthy have to plan to avoid it is just one of the positives of the estate tax.