Dole Denies Losing Bid to Extend Packwood’s Date of Departure

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) denied reports Saturday that he lost an argument with Democrats over whether Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) would be allowed to remain in office for 90 days after his resignation last week.

Dole, one of several GOP presidential candidates, said on CNN’s “Evans & Novak” program that he made a courtesy call to Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) over the matter but never discussed a 90-day departure period.

“We had a very frank discussion. We both agreed we needed some time to wrap up these affairs, figure out what’s going on, pack up. And I think he’d like to have 60 days but he got three weeks.”

Packwood announced his resignation Thursday rather than face almost certain expulsion because of allegations of sexual and ethical misconduct. The Oregon Republican said he will leave Congress on Oct. 1.

It wasn’t hard to get Packwood to leave quickly, but it was somewhat ungracious of Democrats to demand that he do so, Dole said.

“I mean, I could cite some cases where we had people who had been convicted of felonies on the other side of the aisle,” he said.

Dole said he disagrees with other Republicans who believe that the Senate Ethics Committee treated Packwood unfairly, but “I think we have to look at that process. There’s something wrong with the process when the Ethics Committee is, in effect, forced to be the prosecutor, the judge and the jury.”