Nation: Dapper Dan's Toughest Scene

The peacock Congressman is accused of selling influence

In blue-collar Wilkes-Barre, Pa., there is a Daniel J. Flood Elementary School. Close by are a Daniel J. Flood Industrial Park, a Daniel J. Flood Rural Health Center and a Daniel J. Flood Elderly Center. All were named in honor of a theatrically flamboyant Representative who struts around Congress like a peacock. He slicks down his hair with stickum, sports a villainous-looking waxed mustache and favors wildly eccentric clothes—velveteen suits, ruffled shirts, patent-leather shoes and satin-lined capes. But despite his outlandish appearance, Dapper Dan Flood, 74, has amassed immense power in his 30 years on Capitol Hill. As a member of the so-called College of Cardinals—the 13 Appropriation subcommittee chairmen —he can influence a large share of the federal budget and direct as much as reason permits to his constituents' benefit. Or maybe more. He has provided them with millions of dollars' worth of public-works projects over the years, including an interstate highway, hospital and airport.

This week, however, Dapper Dan's colleagues on the House ethics committee will begin a formal investigation into charges that he has been feathering his own nest as well as his district. Committee staffers and the Justice Department are scrutinizing Flood's activities in these areas:

¶His efforts in 1972 to enable a chain of California trade schools to retain its accreditation with the U.S. Office of Education and thus continue to qualify for federal funds. Flood's former administrative assistant, Stephen Elko, admitted receiving a $15,000 kickback from the schools, and was convicted in Los Angeles last fall of bribery, perjury and obstruction of justice. Elko claimed that he received $25,000 in hush money from Flood's friends. But in exchange for a reduced sentence, Elko agreed to provide evidence against his former boss. According to Elko's account, Flood received $100,000 in cash and bank stock from the schools and other organizations that obtained federal financing with his help. ¶Flood's role in obtaining congressional approval in 1973 of $10 million for a livestock development project in the Bahamas, a project that was approved over the strong objection of the Agency for International Development. According to Elko, AID officials' misgivings were silenced when Elko suggested that the agency's appropriation might otherwise be "stymied" by Flood in Congress. But the agency did manage to block Elko's attempt to put one of Flood's friends, Bahamian Lawyer F. Nigel Bowe, in charge of the project.

¶Flood's dealings with the government of Haitian President for Life Jean-Claude Duvalier. During a visit to the island in 1973, Elko promised that Flood would increase U.S. aid. Within a month of Elko's return home, Congress approved $23.4 million in economic aid for Haiti, about 21/2 times as much as Haiti received during the previous year. In return, says Lucien Rigaud, a prominent Haitian businessman and former aide to Duvalier,

Flood received veto power over which U.S. companies would be hired to set up the aid programs.