Former Ohio Congressman James Traficant dead at 73
Former Ohio Congressman James A. Traficant Jr. died Saturday, Sept. 27 at a hospital in Youngstown. He was 73.
He had been injured in a tractor accident last week.
Mr. Traficant had been convicted on corruption charges and was expelled from Congress.
(He was) "a maverick Democrat who found his own path in politics and seemingly in everything else," The Washington Post reported.
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"He was one of the most deliberately outrageous members of Congress in history. Glib and voluble, he was known for wearing cowboy boots, skinny ties and out-of-date polyester suits and for a bouffant mound of hair that seemed to defy gravity."
Traficant, a longtime Ohio Democrat, represented the 17th Congressional District, which centered on his hometown of Youngstown.
He was expelled after being convicted of taking bribes, filing false tax returns, racketeering, and forcing his aides to perform chores at his farm in Ohio and houseboat in Washington, D.C., according to Wikipedia.com.
He played football for the University of Pittsburgh and his teammates included NFL Hall of Famer Mike Ditka.
Traficant also served as sheriff of Mahoning County from 1981-85. He made national headlines by refusing to execute foreclosure orders on unemployed homeowners, many of whom had been left out of work by the recent closures of steel mills.
The Washington Post reported: "Complaining about U.S. support for other countries, Traficant said in 1998: 'Russia gets $15 billion in foreign aid from Uncle Sam. In exchange, Uncle Sam gets nuclear missiles pointed at our cities, two tape decks and three cases of vodka. Beam me up.'"
Go to http://www.vindy.com/traficant/ for "The Life and Legacy of Jim Traficant."