By Dick Morris
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: There was no middle ground with former Ohio Congressman James A. Traficant Jr.
Loose cannon or wily politician? Crook or public servant? Champion of the oppressed or self-centered egotist?
He was as much of a news item in West Central PA as his home base Youngstown. Middle class and lower income individuals perceived Traficant as a folk hero. The more comfortable citizens followed his escapades with amused detachment.
Traficant was an expert at putting heat on the establishment.
Events when Sharon Steel filed its first bankruptcy in 1987 were made for the affable former Pitt quarterback and Mahoning County sheriff. The 12th largest US steelmaker, Sharon employed 2,700, all but 700 represented by United Steelworkers.
With pensions underfunded $110 million and City of Farrell dependent on the steelmaker for more than half of its property taxes, Sharon Steel filed for Chapter 11 on April 17, 1987.
Some thirty percent of its employees lived in Traficant’s Ohio district.
Prior to the bankruptcy, Sharon executives had called on Traficant to help ratify a crucial labor contract claiming passage was necessary to save the company. Steelworkers passed the pact but the company went belly-up anyway.
Miami Beach financier Victor Posner gained control of Sharon Steel in 1969 through one of the nation’s first hostile takeovers. Many thought Posner was done plundering the steelmaker and the bankruptcy filing in 1987 was not surprising.
Traficant threatened to go to Florida and “assault Posner” for the grief he was causing families here.
A group calling itself Sharon Steelworkers Coalition invited company and public officials to a meeting at Sharon High School Auditorium. Company officials did not show, local public officials who did attend, timidly sat in the last row. Traficant’s Congressional counterpart Tom Ridge (R-Erie) claimed to have the flu.
Traficant strode on stage in his cowboy boots, skinny tie, far out-of-style polyester suit and a “bouffant mound of hair that seemed to defy gravity,” as Matt Schudel of the Washington Post wrote. For nearly two hours, he answered questions, took heat and promised to fight for the employees.
That was Traficant being Traficant.
Traficant, elected Mahoning County sheriff in November 1980, almost immediately began an unwinnable war with the prosecutorial section of the Federal Government. He took $160,000 in bribes from local mobsters during the 1980 sheriff campaign, but claimed he was conducting a “one-man sting.” Nevertheless, the Feds indicted him in August 1982. In a seven-week trial in 1983 where he represented himself, Traficant was acquitted.
In 1984, he defeated incumbent Lyle Williams for Congress and would hold that seat until he was expelled in his ninth term in 2002. By that time, Traficant was on his way to Allenwood Federal Prison for the next seven years.
In-between, he voted for a Republican for Speaker and was rewarded with zero committee assignments. Traficant accused President Clinton’s attorney-general Janet Reno of treason. During one session, he voted against Democrats 77 percent of the time.
Traficant became famous for his one-minute diatribes on the House floor, always ending with “Beam me up, Mr. Speaker.”
The IRS sued him in civil court for the back taxes and opened a new corruption investigation of his conduct as Congressman. This time Traficant was not so fortunate in criminal court.
After his release from prison in September, 2009 Traficant became a radio talk show host in Cleveland and finished third in the 2010 Congressional race.
Earlier last week a 1940s vintage tractor flipped on Traficant at the family farm. Saturday he died of injuries sustained from that accident. He was 73.
Bottom Line: In an era when most politicians focus first on being re-elected, do not look for another risk-taker like Traficant.
