Wilbur Mills was a powerful Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from the State of Arkansas.
Wilbur Daigh Mills was born on 24 May 1909 in Kensett, White County, Arkansas. Mills attended public schools and later graduated from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. He obtained his law degree from Harvard University and was admitted to the bar in 1933.
Mills served in the House of Representatives from 1939 to 1977 and served as the chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, a post he held longer than any other in American history. Mills was often termed "the most powerful man in Washington" during his tenure.
Mills served as County Judge of White County, Arkansas during the depression years and began a county-funded program to pay medical bill, prescription drugs, and hospital treatment for the poor.
His accomplishments in Congress included playing a large role in the creation of the Medicare program. Mills initially opposed the program but eventually shepherded it through Congress. Mills was also acknowledged as the primary tax expert in the Congress and a voice for the Tax Reform Act of 1969. Mills favored a conservative fiscal policy and a balanced budget but also supported various liberal programs.
Mills ran for President of the United States in the 1972 Democratic primaries.
But Mills is best known for being disgraced by scandal after a drunken incident on October 7, 1974. Mills was caught cheating on his wife. He chased after and won the heart of a stripper named Anabell Battistella, who was also known as "Fanne Foxe, the Argentine Firecracker." Poor Mills. In the 1970's, voters did not care for promiscuous behavior on the part of adulterous womanizing politicians. When Mills, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, got drunk and drove his car into the Washington Tidal Basin while in the company of Ms. Foxe, well, it caused a real scandal. It was OK for politicians to act like cats in heat, as long as they did not get caught on camera. Indeed, one of Wilbur Mills problems was that his questioning had been caught on camera. Mills, so used to lying like a politician, panicked when he could not lie his way out of the situation. Mills's initial, glib comment on his behavior was, "Don't go out with foreigners who drink Champagne." Later, his more sober explanation was, "I drank booze, and I mixed the drinks with some highly addictive drugs." He eventually revised his explanation like a true politician: "I now believe that the fatigue and pressure built up by years of dedicated work for my constituents and for the whole nation had an impact on me far beyond what I suspected," Mills said. The Washington press corp was generally very liberal and tolerant of adultery. Reporter Nancy Dickerson never reported until after he died, that a drunken Wilbur Mills took her to see stripper Fanne Foxe perform and declared, "I own her." Liberal and tolerant, unless there was a good picture available.
Roger Mudd, who used to work at CBS News, said of it, "The best thing about this story is, it can only get worse."
Mills was questioned by Washington, D.C. Police at 2am and found to be intoxicated. His face was bloody from a scuffle with Fox. When police approached the car, Foxe leapt from the car and into the Tidal Basin. While his office denied that he had a drinking problem, Jack Anderson reported that - 'if his staff said, "He can't speak with you now, he's on the floor", it was never clear if Mills was on the floor of the House or the floor of his office.' - In the '74 election a month after the scandal, Mills had a challenger, who used the slogan, "If you like liquor, sex and thrills, cast your vote for Wilbur Mills". Mills won anyway, but with only 59% in a heavily Democrat district. Within weeks, Mills appeared on a Boston stage carousing with Foxe, apparently intoxicated. Faced with an uprising among House Democrats, Mills was forced to resign as Ways and Means chairman, and in 1976 he announced he would not seek another term, ending his 38-year House career.
Wilbur Mills died on 2 May 1992 in Searcy, Arkansas. Mills is buried at Kensett Cemetery in Kensett, Arkansas.
Various schools, highways, and other structures are named after Mills in Arkansas.
Wilbut stashed Fanne out on the island of Kauai. I met her coming out of the surf. Best vacation ever! My Mom couldn’t figure out where I was all the time, but my Dad knew!
This is from recently released Watergate records:
http://media.nara.gov/research/watergate-sealed-court-records/DOCID-59162107.PDF
Charles Morgan of the ACLU discussing in Camera with Judge Sirica and US Attorney Earl Silbert the contents of Alfred Baldwin’s FBI interview regarding persons and subjects overheard on the Spencer Oliver tap:
Morgan: “We go over to that very short portion of the FBI statement that I was provided and find the following names, Bob Strauss, Wilbur Mills, and we find again Ida Wells, Bobby Allen (won YDA presidency vs Steny Hoyer in Hot Springs, Ark.1971), Robert Kennedy (Morgan possibly misspoke and meant Barbara Kennedy a DNC secretary), and a copy of the document that I received, Your Honor, was a Xerox, and I couldn’t quite quite make out some of it, appeared to be stricken through the name Al Barker, which I think is misspelled in there (Al Bracken AFL-CIO official), AFL-CIO, Senator Humphrey, Senator McGovern, Spencer Oliver again, John Richardson from the State department, and then certain entities are mentioned...
Well there is also (deleted), a British delegation, the American Young Political Leaders Congress, the Atlantic Chapter of that, the American Young Political Leaders Congress again (transcript withheld)...
Now this comes straight from Bill Clinton’s book My Life:
“I started my job (May 1972) for McGovern in Washington, first checking in with Lee Williams and my
other friends (like Marsha Scott, Bruce Lindsey) on Senator Fulbright’s staff, then going to see Congressman Wilbur Mills, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Mills, who was a Washington legend for his detailed knowledge of the tax code and his skill in running his committee, had announced that he would be Arkansas’ “favorite son” candidate at the Miami convention.” Top staffers for Mills in 1972 were Patsy Thomasson and Dolores McDougal.
Alfred Baldwin, the man hired to monitor the tapped phone at the Watergate, testified that the conversations he overheard were “intimately explicit” and “primarily sexual”.
From Alfred Baldwin, the Watergate bug eavesdropper hired by Watergate burglar James McCord relating his Watergate era story on The Education Forum: 2005:
Between 1966 and 1972 I worked as the Director of Security for a multi-state trucking firm. I left this position to work for a retired Naval Admiral who was creating a college degree program for law enforcement personnel who desired a college degree in the police administration and law enforcement field. I was hired as his assistant with the task of hiring adjunct professors as well as teaching law related subjects. The college was the University of New Haven located in New Haven. Yes, there are other colleges/universities other than Yale located in New Haven.”
From Bill Clinton’s book My Life describing his various jobs as a student at Yale circa 1971-72:
“My other job was less hazardous but more interesting. I taught criminal law to undergraduates in a law-enforcement program at the University of New Haven. My position was funded under the Federal Law Enforcement Assistance program, which had just started under Nixon. The classes were designed to produce more professional law officers who could make arrests, searches, and seizures in a constitutional manner. I often had to prepare my lectures late in the evening before the day I delivered them. To stay awake, I did a lot of my work at the Elm Street Diner, about a block away from our house. It was open all night, had great coffee and fruit pie, and was full of characters from New Havens night life...The street outside the diner was the border dividing the territory of two groups of street-walking prostitutes. From time to time the police took them away, but they were always quickly back at work. The streetwalkers often came into the diner to get coffee and warm up. When they found out I was in law school, several would plop down in my booth in search of free legal advice. I did my best, but none took the best advice: get another job.”
I think it was Mills who kept a secretary in his office who didn’t know how to type.