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By Betty Beale WASHINGTON, D. C. — Washington, still steeped in the humorless shame of Water gate, has been reverberating with laughter over the Wilbur Mills and stripteaser inci dent. The juicy scandal with its bizarre circumstances has given rise to a whole se ries of jokes being bandied about at every gathering. Among the milder are the ones about changing the name of the Tidal Basin to the Old Mills stream and the real meaning of President Ford's new WIN buttons: Wilbur Is Naughty. But the biggest and most ironic joke of all was the effort of the once-powerful (ridicule will destroy that power) chairman of the house ways and means committee to hang the whole thing on his wife by issuing a statement that Polly was “blaming herself for not accompanying us that night. “That's absolutely asi nine,” said an Arkansas friend, “I understand Polly wasn't even here, that she'd gone to live with her daughter. She went there the first part of the year and stayed for three months because of his behavior. Polly had just come back when he announced he was going to run again for congress. “My, how you people in the press protect ed him. A reporter asked him (at that confer ence): ‘It is rumored that you are divorcing Mrs. Mills — is that true?’ Wilbur denied it. He said, ‘Why don't you ask Mrs. Mills? She's here.” But that never appeared in the newspapers. BEALE She Is A Recluse ?Polly is kind of a recluse. She was vice president of the Congressional club (a club of wives, daughters and sisters of members of congress) and she could have been president, but she didn’t want it. She was a postmis tress in a small town when he married her She is a nice, sweet person. She doesn’t de serve this kind of treatment. The whole thing is very sad for his family.’ Maureen Dean, who came to Washington for the Watergate trial to be near John, showed up at Argentine Ambassador Alex Orfila’s “Argentine Night’ party which was a smashing dinner and dancing fun time last ing until 3 in the morning. Alex imported top tango dancers and sing ers for his 300 guests at the seated buffet which drew such VIP figures as presidential counselors Bob Hartmann and Phil Bucen and their wives and Attorney General and Mrs. Bill Saxbe. ‘Mo” Dean, who came with Susie Gold water, turned out to be warm and responsive not at all like the cool and collected wom an viewed on the tube by millions during the senate Watergate hearings. Her book, scheduled to be published May 1, 1975, will not be only about her feelings as a wife of one of the men involved in Watergate, she said. It seems she kept a diary covering the entire period as it started to unfold in the White House, long before the public knew the Pres ident and his staff were involved. Every day when John came home from work and confided in her — about his worries and what Nixon had said, etc., she wrote it down and then added her own comments. As a result, everybody who has seen any of the material that's going into the book has ex claimed, ‘““Wow’’, she said Long Imprisonment In the meantime, she is managing com fortably on the advance for the book. A col lege student, the son of a friend, is looking after the Deans’ Beverly Hills house, swim ming pool, etc., during her three weeks in Washington. Mrs. Dean doesn't seem to think John will be freed at the end of the first year of his one-two-four-year sentence. But except for this stiff punishment of the man whose truth ful revelations led to the uncovering of the whole Watergate mess, she thinks Judge Sir ica has been fair. As for their marriage, “they're absolutely devoted to each other. It’s beautiful,” said Mrs. Goldwater. “In times like this you draw closer to gether,” said Mo. “Your bonds become stronger — fighting to be together again. It is very lonely not having him around. I depend ed on him so much.” John Dean's book, when he gets around to writing it, will proba bly be a factual novel, said his wife. Jerry Ford's unflappable nature was put to the test the day he gave his economic speech. Bill Seidman, the chairman of Ford's economic council, was still exclaiming over it when he arrived at a party for those three feminine wheels in government — presidenti al assistant, Gwen Anderson; Republican Na tional Committee chairman, Mary Louise Smith, and U.S. treasurer, Francine Neff. Seidman barely walked into the Sheraton Park reception before he told the story. “I have never seen a man so calm in a crunch,” he began. When the President began reviewing the final copy of the speech shortly before delivering it, he found that one of the 26 pages simply wasn't there. In fact, it wasn't anywhere anyone looked during the frantic search that ensued. ‘Any other Pres ident would have blown his top,”’ said Bill, but Ford remained as cool and patient as al ways. Seidman finally had to dig out the scratch copy to fill the missing gap. Counsel for the President, Robert Hartmann, is surrounded by three GOP honorees at a party, Treasurer Francine Neff, GOP National Chair man Mary Louise Smith and Presidential Assistant Gwen Anderson.
Newspaper Details
Cedar Rapids Gazette
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US
Sun, Oct 20, 1974
Page 64
Full Page
Clipped by
Larry C.
USA 06 Sep 2026
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