Using Husbands as Business Cards

...When politicians' spouses are blind to these traps and conflicts, they cast a shadow not only over the political process, but over the desire for the independence they sought in the first place...

...They were quoted approximately $100 a car...

...The compromising position in which she put her husband was so clear...

...Of course Gray would handle the charity work...

...Yet there were no regrets, and with the exception of Ray's charge that Proxmire had played favorites with Whirl-Around clients on the Senate floor (the evidence was circumstantial), there were no denials...

...Women like Ellen Proxmire have accomplished something—and they've done so without the kind of paper credentials usually required in Washington...

...Hatfield still was able to act on behalf of the Saudis by selling them another building at $1 million...

...Most find that real estate is flexible enough so they still can campaign with their husbands and take care of the kids...

...But as I thought about Marion Javits and about political wives in general, the mildness of the reaction became more understandable...

...As Lynn Rosellini of The New York Times has discovered, Gray, who is on friendly terms with most of the highest ranking members of the Reagan administration (including the president himself), makes an extra effort with the spouses, too...

...And that wasn't the only time Harrison Williams found himself compromised when it came to his wife's business interests...

...Or perhaps it was just that the use of influence is so common in Washington as to be taken entirely for granted...

...Such affairs are just what it takes to convince the skeptical out-of-town trade association president that, yes, this whole expensive dog-and-pony show his Washington representative put together may have been worth it after all...

...Poston denied this...

...I told Bob that the one thing I wanted to be careful about was...

...Was it the nature of their relationship that led Williams to convince himself that he was doing nothing wrong...

...Of all the congressional wives involved in real estate, Antoinette Hatfield is without a doubt the most successful...

...The simple use of one's status in society is not itself illegal," the court ruled in dismissing the case...

...If striking out on your own often involves being identified yet more closely with the person from whom you are seeking independence, well that's Washington, and Washington, as many put-upon political wives have concluded, must owe them something...

...In 1979 it was discovered that Javits was doing public relations work for Iran Air at the same time her husband was the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...

...Nancy Thurmond and Bob Gray are friends...

...In fact, the senator admitted that over a five-year period he had reserved 30 congressional meeting rooms for Whirl-Around clients...

...When Nancy Thurmond wanted some publicity help for a charity ball, she called on her old friend Bob Gray, the former Eisenhower aide who organized the Reagan inaugural and whose one-year-old public relations firm, Gray and Co...

...The other tour and convention business was called Washington Whirl-Around, and one of its partners was Ellen Proxmire, wife of Senator William Proxmire...

...A Map Through a Trap It is impossible to ignore, of course, how hard it is to be married to a politician, and many of these women deserve enormous credit for the way they have borne up over the years...

...A few days later the rate setter received a call from Senator Williams, who said he would appreciate it if the railroad could give this particular company a break on the rate...

...All the influence peddler needs to be sure of is pillow talk between husband and wife...

...The superficiality...

...her husband their gratitude...

...During his prolonged absences, she cared for five children, rarely went out alone, and continued to fulfill her responsibilities as a political wife...

...See if I can talk to Ursula Meese [Edwin...

...They include Carolyn Moore (Henson), Sue Huckaby (Jerry), Dorothy Martin (James), Ann Simpson (Alan), Patricia Derwinski (Ed), Lou Bevill (Tom), and Dolores Beilenson (Anthony...

...Ray also pointed out that Whirl-Around played host to banking and financial groups while Proxmire was chairman of the Senate Banking Committee...

...Financial success does not become unlawful because it is aided by prominence...

...And Congress is a club in which people are moving around a lot and need new houses...

...Proxmire didn't view herself as a cut-throat businesswoman out to get anybody—she just wanted to do something, to be a successful individual, not just the wife of a politician...

...It was public knowledge that the Javitses never got along well...

...Perhaps the best example of how a wife's wellmeaning but misguided ambitions can undermine a husband's career is that of Jeanette Williams...

...This was the basis of a bit of controversy in 1977, when Antoinette Hatfield did some business with the Saudis...

...That means, theoretically, anyone can write a senator to request a meeting room...

...As it turns out, Jeanette Williams had a significant, if unintentional, hand in husband Harrison's downfall...

...Her commission was $30,000...

...So there it was in black and white...

...The mindnumbing campaigns...

...The absence of the typical Washington subtlety is what makes the case of political wives so useful to study...

...These women have learned to avoid the influence game by recognizing the traps and irreconcilable conflicts that Washington can inflict upon political marriages...

...In fact, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives wrote Candis Ray that Washington WhirlAround's "success...

...He stopped after Ray complained...

...She's been an agent for several years and now has her own brokerage firm...

...As their agent, Antoinette Hatfield's commission would have been about $100,000...

...First, she and her partners created "Wonderful Weddings," a firm that did everything but walk down the aisle with the bride-to-be...

...It's difficult to tell to what extent Jeanette's own ambitions led to the senator's downfall...

...District Court all listened politely, even sympathetically, to her tale, agreeing with the truth of her charges but disputing the premise...

...It isn't that your firm hired the son of the senator's former law partner, whose father was grateful and mentioned something to the administrative assistant, therefore allowing you access...

...Another letter, this one from the co-chairman of the National Limestone Institute's ladies' program to its members, was more explicit: "We have contracted with Washington Whirl-Around, a group of congressional wives, to act as our hostesses on each of the tours, and they have convinced their friends and contacts to give us very special treatment...

...Because Mark Hatfield is sincerely sympathetic to the Arab world and the Palestinians in ways that most senators aren't, he was left quite vulnerable when his wife made money working with the Saudis...

...She should have been more careful, they thought...

...Then, of course, there was Abscam itself, where Biocel came into the picture again...

...And predictably, if there's any one profession that most often attracts congressional wives, this is it...

...People who know them claim he worshipped her—that she was an omnipresent force in both his political and private life and that he was blind to her faults...

...Favors are not exchanged with the baldness that the rest of the country tends to believe...

...Back in 1974 Harrison ("Pete") Williams had a friend, Charlie Stein, who owned an amusement and wildlife park in New Jersey called Great Adventure...

...Joan Braden, the famous Washington hostess who can count Kissingers, Kennedys, Rockefellers, and lots of other important people as close friends, also was recently hired by Gray and Co...

...tant—or important-looking—people and to gaze at impressive, awe-inspiring surroundings suffused with the aroma of power and history...

...Stein was interested in getting a waiver from the interior department that would allow him to bring an endangered species of tiger to the park...

...Williams, who ironically had been a sponsor of the endangered species law, succeeded in getting the waiver for Stein...

...A dozen or so other congressional wives had signed on with the firm as staff members or speakers, and Whirl-Around was also capitalizing on its access to several prominent Washington journalists...

...Hatfield denied any impropriety, telling Portland's Willamette Week, "If anyone ever approached me with the intention of getting to Mark, I would tell them to `go to hell.'" That's not the point, of course...

...Other real estate agents lament that it's tough to compete...

...What made Candis Ray angry enough to sue was her belief that Ellen Proxmire was peddling something more than an ability to give good tours—namely her influence...

...She describes the days of working in his office without pay or status as "miserable...

...The forced smiles...

...Periodically Barbara Boggs, wife of powerful lobbyist Tommy Boggs and a partner in Whirl-Around, would ask the office of her mother-in-law, Rep...

...The senator asked that he receive a million-dollar loan and 17-percent interest in the mine for himself...

...Javits has a share, taking into consideration the great influence and possibilities that Senator Javits and his wife have in New York City or Mr...

...Barbara Boggs acknowledged her role, too...

...Now as you might have guessed, none of this struck the targets of Ray's lawsuit as smelling even a little bit bad...

...I need to reach Carol Laxalt [Paul...

...not to be hired on the basis of whom I knew or whom I could bring into the company because of my social contacts," she told The Washington Post, presumably with a straight face...

...The Marion Javits case got a lot of press, but according to several political wives with whom I spoke, it really didn't stir much reaction among the wives beyond a little tsk-tsking...

...He hired Nancy Thurmond...

...The connections available to the wives are viewed not only as a source of income, but as entirely natural—the most natural, common elements of their daily lives in Washington...

...Her financial success is part of the reason the Hatfields can afford, on a senator's salary, a $500,000 home in Georgetown, two apartments elsewhere in the District, and another home in Portland, Oregon...

...headquartered in a building called "The Power House"), has already racked up $9 million in billings...

...Most wives will tell you privately that the $60,662 their husbands earn is woefully inadequate for maintaining two homes, sending the kids to college, and leading the lives expected of them as public figures...

...The juncture of public relations and political wives provides a sort of x-ray on the purchase and sale of Washington influence...

...The networking is traceable...

...The Powerhouse Plugs In One thing many political families believe Washington owes them is money...

...The deal never went through, but the folks at Lehigh Valley were left wondering exactly who Harrison Williams was representing...

...In exchange, he allegedly said he would use his influence to get government defense contracts for the mine...

...Biocel, a new firm in which Jeanette Williams owned a 13-percent share, planned to set up garbage recycling plants and, in 1975, went to the Lehigh Valley Railroad to find out how much it would cost to transport the garbage...

...If there's one business that relies most heavily on connections, it's real estate...

...Take Nancy Thurmond, the savvy, former beauty queen Strom Thurmond married 13 years ago...

...Things got sticky when a 1978 rule was passed forbidding Senate employees to hold positions with public corporations, but Stein solved the problem by making Jeanette a "consultant"—at the same salary...

...But the rules also imply that any direct commercial benefit from such gatherings is forbidden...

...Gray buzzes his secretary: "See if you can get John O'Connor on the phone [Sandra Day...

...There are many political wives who have succeeded in careers outside the realm of their husbands' influence...

...As far as Ellen Proxmire was concerned, Candis Ray's charges were "a bunch of garbage...

...Can you imagine the Saudis taking Antoinette Hatfield aside and explaining that they were enlisting her services as a real estate agent in order to show...

...And they make the case that the public wants political wives who wear fine clothing and entertain lavishly...

...The Senate Rules Committee, the Senate Ethics Committee, and, finally, the U.S...

...in having Clement E. Conger arrange a private tour for our ladies" was the very reason Candis 0. Ray and Associates wouldn't get the farmers' business...

...Not because there are favors to win or deals to cut—in fact the person leaving town can't do a thing for you—but because the parties create that vague feeling of good will out of which the rest of the business can grow...

...For those political wives in the habit of using their husbands' names for their own benefit, it was quite logical...

...Ellen Proxmire admits that during the early years of her husband's career she used to "sit home Saturday night and cry," but she has rarely spoken about how she felt when her husband left for a convention in 1958 shortly after their day-old son died...

...Or was it something in the very nature of political marriages in Washington, in the trap that can develop when personal goals—for fulfillment, independence, or money—run up against public standards...

...Antoinette was right—the Saudis weren't trying to buy a vote...

...When Bob Gray needed to hire someone bright this spring to help write commencement speeches, he didn't have to think very hard...

...This was Proxmire, remember, a man who by Senate standards is a model of integrity, not to mention a frequent critic of business-as-usual in Washington...

...Iran's prime minister, Amir Abbas, had written a memorandum to the Shah saying that "the existence of an Iran lobby in the American Congress seems useful," and "at the same time, employing the services of a company in which Mrs...

...At first this astonished me...

...At least a dozen wives sell real estate in the Washington metropolitan area...

...Hatfield, who tends to oppose large-scale foreign military assistance, has sided against Israel on several foreign assistance votes...

...So Candis Ray had some cause for concern, because when she tried for the same atmospherics she ran up against Senate rules, which say a room can be obtained only through a request by a member...

...For instance, goodby parties are always well attended by lobbyists...

...The membership got a thrill...

...Such logic suggests that the only reasons the Marion Javits affair caused any stir were that Iran and the Shah's American lobbying were so much in the headlines then and that the influence-buying was so bald-faced...

...Like many Senate families, the Hatfields have frequently used their luxurious surroundings to entertain, and because Mark Hatfield has a reputation for being sympathetic to Arab and Palestinian causes, they are plugged into the Kuwait/ Saudi party circuit...

...The friendships, if not more genuine, at least serve the larger purposes more discreetly...

...She stayed in the hospital for two days and then went back on the campaign trail...

...So it was natural and commendable that after years of service as a dutiful political wife, Ellen Proxmire wanted to strike out on her own...

...Not that the admissions meant anything when Candis Ray pressed her case...

...For 16 years Ray had been president of Candis 0. Ray and Associates, a Washington firm that provided tours and convention planning for out-of-town groups...

...The organizer who can schedule a reception here instead of the Holiday Inn across town has a leg up on the competition...

...And what of the fact that one of Gray's clients happened to have an important bill pending before Strom Thurmond's Judiciary Committee...

...After all hadn't the men been using their wives for years for their benefit...

...She was fed up, losing money, and determined to sue...

...And during the Carter administration, Washington WhirlAround partner Gretchen Poston became Rosalynn Carter's social secretary, a position Ray claims enabled the firm to dazzle some of its clients with perks such as tea in the Rose Garden...

...Two years later, Stein hired Jeanette Williams as a director of Great Adventure with a salary of $16,500 (this was in addition to the $28,620 she was paid for working on her husband's labor committee on the Hill...

...Better sign up with Washington Whirl-Around next year, too...

...Javits alone has in the American Senate, may be a remarkable political opportunity...

...What's more, in Marion Javits's case there were no personal victims, no Candis Rays...

...But more important Ray learned that Proxmire's husband frequently authorized the use of congressional meeting rooms for receptions held by Washington Whirl-Around clients, many of whom are trade associations...

...The loneliness...

...Now, after all those years, she was going broke trying to compete with another company in the same business, a company with a number of advantages over hers—unfair advantages, Ray thought...

...he admitted as much in his memoirs ("Marion has missed the romance, the attention, and the continuity of emotional attachment that she expected to find over time with me," he writes...

...The firm also had access to powerful individuals outside the House and the Senate...

...Clement Conger, art curator at the state department and the White House, was a friend who could be counted on...

...Lindy Boggs, to arrange receptions for Whirl-Around clients...

...But much of the time the rationalizations are a lot less tortured than that...

...It soon was disclosed that Javits was doing PR work for the Shah himself and that Iran had hired her because she was Jacob Javits's wife...

...But when a politician's influence takes the place of these credentials, a wife runs the risk of undermining not only his credibility, but her own...

...Otherwise the principle at issue—namely, influence—wasn't really much different from that involving, say, Antoinette Hatfield...

...And she did not appear bitter when that same year, right after Proxmire won the election, she had a•miscarriage on the way home from a football game that, despite her exhaustion, Proxmire insisted she attend...

...It's a lot easier than that...

...The Saudis were looking for an embassy and had their eye on a $5 million marble building right next to the state department...

...The most famous example of the trap involves Marion Javits...

...As it happens, Patton, Boggs and Blow, Tommy Boggs's law firm, represents the Limestone Institute, as well as several other Washington Whirl-Around clients...

...Perish the thought...

...I always ask if I can do anything to help," Gray says...

...Whether or not constituents actually expect this, such reasoning is frequently employed to rationalize the desire to work in occupations that could turn out to conflict with their husbands' roles...

...Washington Whirl-Around also played the House side...

...What she overlooked is that her desire to be a good businesswoman, no matter how well motivated, had the potential to undermine her husband's position and credibility...

...They get to rub elbows with imporDonna Fenn is on the staff of The Washington Monthly...

...Marion Javits claims to have been ignorant of such self-serving motives on the part of the government of Iran, although it stretches credulity to believe that such a savvy woman could have been that careless and naive...

...Harrison Williams tried to get the "Arabs" to finance a titanium mine that was owned by Sandy Williams (not related to the senator), founder of Biocel...

...The Senate has since clarified the rules to prevent future abuses, but at the time the court denied there had been any injustice...

...Then, with the enormous growth of Washington trade associations during the early 1970s, came Washington Whirl-Around, which last year grossed $2 million...

...They were helping a friend while at the same time building a network of support...

...After all, Washington is not a titfortat town...

...When wives are not involved, Washington networking is a lot more subtle and hard to detect...

...So was it any big surprise that she didn't worry too much about the prospect of her husband's embarrassment, and that other wives could sympathize and feel a little less sensitive to the requirements of propriety that accompany their own husbands' jobs...

...The deal was called off when it became public knowledge, but Mrs...

...Having a reception in a Senate hearing room might not sound like such a big deal, but for many Washington visitors this can be the highlight of their trip...

...Thus, when Ray made requests to over a half-dozen senators, including her own, she was turned down...

...For Pete's Sake Because they are highly able—and want to be thought of that way—many of these Washington women have trouble admitting the allure of such connections...

...The PR contract with Iran Air actually turned out to be a cover...