rock and roll part 2

It almost seems like it was simply part of the book promotion, in part of a larger Congressional Sex Scandal, for the fictionalized and overly sensationalized book The Washington Fringe Benefit — the type of fiction that slices about by naming actual people named “Joe Smith” “Zoe Bith”, and on like that.

That is, the allegation that her sexual services were exchanged to Mike Gravel in exchange for a vote.  From The Associated Press, June 14, 1976:

Former Representative Kenneth J Gray said today he was meeting with Justice Department investigators to prove he could not have influenced support for the National Visitors Center by telling Elizabeth Ray to have sexual relations with Senator Mike Gravel, Democrat of Alaska.

“I’ve got my logs,” said Mr. Gray, an Illinois Democrat.  “I’m going to show them to the Justice Deparment.  The record clearly and indisputably shows that on the 9th and 10th of August 1972, in public hearings, we were considering the Eisenhower Civic Center — not the Visitors Center.”

Miss Ray has told Federal investigators she had sexual relations with Senator Gravel during a small party on Mr. Gray’s houseboat on the Potmac River on the night of August 10, 1972, after Mr. Gravel told her to do so.

At any rate, the strange footnote in American political history, time forgets for good reason, and…

Washington Fringe Benefit?  Really?

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