Hivi Ndivyo Kennedy na Ford walivyo jikuta wamezama katika dimbwi la mapenzi na Msichana mmoja Mpelelezi mwenye asili ya Kijerumani huko Washington
A former Senate aide who spent
decades climbing through the ranks in Washington has revealed how the
Capitol was run by men who drank bourbon at all hours, had sex with
secretaries and accepted thousands of dollars in bribes.
Robert
Gene Baker worked first as a page in the Senate, transferring phone
calls and keeping track of vote counts, but grew his role so that he
ended up being former President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s closest aide.
Baker was eventually arrested for theft and tax evasion in 1967, but he has now opened up to Politico Magazine about the lawless manner that dominated DC at that time.
The spy who loved me: President Kennedy
allegedly had an affair with Ellen Rometsch (right), the wife of a West
German army officer based in D.C. Bobby Kennedy feared she was a spy and
would reveal their affair, so he had her deported
Strange bedfellows: Then-Congressman Gerald Ford
(seen here in 1966) also reportedly had an affair with the same woman
and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had recordings of their time together
Investigators: Hoover allegedly used the tape to
blackmail Ford (right) who was a member of the Warren Commission
investigating President Kennedy's death because Hoover wanted to know
what they found out
His most salacious
revelation came about Presidents Kennedy and Ford, who allegedly had
affairs with the same East German woman- who was later believed to be a
spy.
Baker knew Ellen
Rometsch because she was the wife of a West German army officer
stationed in Washington. She was ‘as pretty as Elizabeth Taylor’ and the
trappings of marriage did not stop her from making herself known to the
President.
‘She
really loved oral sex... She went to the White House several times. And
President Kennedy called me and said it’s the best head-job he’d ever
had, and he thanked me,’ Baker said to Politico.
Rometsch was sent to America
by the Communist leaders in East Berlin who hoped that she would
befriend powerful politicians and report back. She went to West Germany
and married air force Rolf Rometsch who then moved with her to the
United States.
She
began working as a hostess at the Quorum Club, a salon for male
politicians that was organized by Baker. As part of her role there, she
arranged prostitutes and went on dates with some of the men herself-
which clearly led to influential connections.
Her
alleged dalliances did not stop at the White House, as she also had
relations with then-Congressman ‘Jerry’ Ford from Michigan, who went on
to become president after Nixon resigned.
Ford’s
relationship with Ms Rometsch allegedly took place during his time on
the Warren Commission where he was tasked with investigating President
Kennedy’s assassination.
The
affair was used against him by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover who was
frustrated that the Warren Commission was not sharing their findings,
‘So,
(Hoover) had this tape where Jerry Ford was having oral sex with Ellen
Rometsch. You know, his wife had a serious drug problem back then…
Hoover blackmailed… Ford to tell him what they were doing,’ Baker said.
Wheeler and dealer: These salacious revelations
were made public by Robert Gene 'Bobby' Baker (seen in 1964) who rose
through the ranks in Washington and became a close personal aide to
President Johnson
For Baker, that was crossing a line that should not be crossed, even in such a rule-averse atmosphere.
‘That’s the reason I don’t like him. It’s just a misuse of authority,’ Baker said.
One
use of power that didn’t seem to bother Baker was the fact that
then-Attorney General Bobby Kennedy had Ms Romestch deported back to
Germany because he was afraid of word of his brother’s affair with the
possible Communist spy would leak after his death.
The Romestch affairs were far from the only instances of sexual impropriety that Baker revealed during his lengthy interview.
He
told of how Democratic California Senator Tommy Kuchel was having an
affair with his secretary and asked Baker to have a page go ‘buy him
some rubbers’, and how Senator Estes Kefauver from Tennessee would use
his role organizing a hearing about high school delinquency to prey on
the youngsters who testified.
‘(Kefauver)
had a bad alcohol problem and he also had a very bad record of wanting
to go to bed with every woman he ever met. He got some of these young
kids testifying, you know, before his Juvenile Committee or something
and then he couldn’t wait to go to bed with them,’ Baker said.
‘Senator
(Jacob) Javits was a publicity hound. He was a very, very bright man,
but he was another one—like Senator Jack Kennedy—he was a sex maniac.
One of the postmen went in and caught him on his couch having a sexual
affair with a Negro lady. He couldn’t wait to come and tell me.’
Power broker: Kennedy (right) reportedly called
on Johnson (left) to use Baker's connections to assess various vote
counts and to see how he could pass different initiatives like Medicare
and the Voting Rights Act
The aura of free love was certainly helped by the endless streams of alcohol that went at all hours.
Baker
recalled how Senators and aides would regularly convene in offices with
fully stocked bars- like that of Senate Republican leader Everett
Dirksen who displayed a clock on with every number replaced with a ‘5’
so that no matter what time of day it was, it was always acceptable to
drink.
Similarly, it
was an unspoken understanding that votes in the Senate could be bought
and entire towns could be given a price when it came to national
elections.
Mixing business and pleasure: Baker was eventually jailed for tax evasion and theft
‘It made my job much easier
because a man that you have helped when he is running for his life, and
he’s run out of money, and you send him $50,000, boy he is grateful…. We
had no rules,’ Baker said.
In
one instance, Baker was shocked to learn that a Democratic Senator from
Oklahoma- who should have supported President Kennedy’s Medicare
program- had struck a deal with doctors in his home state who were
opposed to the proposal and then bought off at least one fellow senator
for $200,000.
Even
getting President Kennedy in office cost a pretty penny, as Rein Vander
Zee- a top aide to Kennedy’s Democratic rival Hubert Humphrey- revealed
that the Massachusetts man’s family paid up to get him into the White
House.
‘Vander Zee,
until his dying day, said that Humphrey would have defeated Kennedy… had
it not been for that massive cash old man Joe [Kennedy] bought the
election with,’ Baker said.
Once
in office, Kennedy clearly revelled in the role as Baker recalled a
time the two of them were walking through the back offices of the
Senate: ‘We had these sofas and chairs, and there’s the mirror where…
Kennedy said, “God, why did you make me so beautiful?”’
In
spite of the alcohol and ethical abuses that appear to be rampant in
the 1950s and 1960s, he said that one way that the ‘good old days’ truly
earned the title was because Republicans and Democrats worked together.
Baker said that though his relationship with Johnson ended poorly,
still believes that the Texan president should be credited with one of
the most important achievements in recent history.
‘When
I see my Negro friends, I tell them, “You go say a little prayer for
LBJ.” Because I said, “The Voting Rights Act made us all equal.” The
only way in hell that Senator Obama ever got elected president was
because of the Voting Rights Act. I said, ‘It’s the greatest thing
that’s happened to our country,’ Baker said.
Daily Mail
Posted by Editor
on 21:35.
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