Congressional scandal figures ...and the yachts they live on
 Lifestyles of the rich and infamous. And, unfortunately, once elected.
A front page story in Friday's New York Times takes a peek at the large number of disgraced lawmakers who have, at one time or another, anchored their yachts at "a 'floating trailer park' where everyone knows everyone else’s business," yet "neighbors tend not to discuss what they see and hear."
"When he is not at the Capitol, Senator Larry E. Craig spends much of his time aboard the Suz II, the 42-foot yacht that serves as his Washington home," Marilyn W. Thompson writes for the paper. "Further down D Dock at the Capital Yacht Club, his friend Senator Ted Stevens occasionally escapes the pressures of a federal investigation aboard his pleasure boat."
The article continues, "Former Representative Randy Cunningham, Republican of California, used to reside a few slips over on the Duke Stir before federal investigators built a bribery case against him. And at the Gangplank Marina next door, the disgraced congressmen Bob Ney, a Republican, and James A. Traficant Jr., a Democrat, both from Ohio, traded coveted slips for federal prison cells in bribery cases."
Thompson takes readers into a world where "[p]rotected by locked gates and security, members of Congress rub elbows with lawyers and lobbyists, judges and bureaucrats, established government contractors and aspiring ones, and others lucky enough to own expensive boats and secure a coveted slip."
 In the October 1 issue of The New Yorker, Seth Hettena wrote of the "The D Dock Curse."
"In the past two years, thanks to the men of D Dock, club members have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury, they have witnessed federal agents on a raid, and they have grown used to reporters gathering like gulls on the sea wall," Hettena wrote.
One member told Hettena, "Are all these politicians even good for us? We used to think they were great. They could lobby on our behalf. Now it’s spinning the opposite way. We’re all wondering if there’s something in the water. Or maybe the ‘D’ stands for ‘dummy.’"
Excerpts from Times article:
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“There’s no other place like it,” said Dutch von Ehrenfried, a former yacht club commodore who says a cabinet member, astronauts, and the musician Yanni have attended parties on his boat. “Why would all these big shots with their big boats be anywhere else?”
The Congressional scandals linked to slipholders do not always have to do with boats. But in recent years, some yacht club members and staff members have gotten caught up in the investigations of lawmakers. Three from the club, for example, were called before the federal grand jury investigating Mr. Cunningham’s ties to a military contractor who lent him the Duke Stir.
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Members typically make public few details about their nautical lives, and Congressional rules require them to disclose boats as assets only if they produce income or are bought or sold.
Mr. Craig, who is known as exceptionally frugal, unwittingly called attention to the club when he gave the arresting officer in Minneapolis his club mail drop as a home address, 1000 Water Street SW. Mr. Craig, an outdoorsman who likes to fish and hunt, is a well-known figure at the marinas, where he has lived off and on during his Congressional career.
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FULL TIMES ARTICLE CAN BE READ AT THIS LINK
Excerpts from The New Yorker:
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There’s something about politicians and boats. After John F. Kennedy was assassinated, all records of his visits to the Presidential yacht Sequoia were burned in an oil drum. A photograph of Donna Rice sitting on Senator Gary Hart’s knee aboard the Monkey Business doomed his Presidential campaign. Former Representative James Traficant is serving eight years in prison for tax evasion, racketeering, and taking bribes, including thousands of dollars in repairs for his yacht. Before former Representative Robert Ney went to prison for accepting gifts from the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, he docked his fifty-four-foot yacht, Cong Won, at the Gangplank Marina. And Abramoff himself was convicted of fraud in the purchase of, among other things, a fleet of gaming boats.
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The Capital Yacht Club has weathered worse crises. Its first headquarters, a houseboat, sprang a leak and sank in 1903. The following year, a member was killed by a steamer’s paddle wheel. Until recently, the club marked the passing of each day with a cannon blast. The facilities consist of a plantation-style roofed clubhouse, where members can pick up mail, do laundry, and drink at the bar in flip-flops, and four docks that jut out into the channel. D Dock happens to be close to the parking lot, making for a shorter walk to a congressman’s chauffeur-driven car. (U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a former Idaho senator and governor, also lives on D Dock. Kempthorne, who is so far scandal-free, has a fifty-three-foot yacht that used to be called High Spirits, until he changed it to the Liberty.)
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FULL NEW YORKER ARTICLE CAN BE READ AT THIS LINK
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