Tidal Basin - Incidents

Incidents

The Tidal Basin was the scene of a scandalous drunken incident involving the Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, Democratic Congressman Wilbur Mills. On October 7, 1974, Mills' car, with an Argentine stripper known as Fanne Foxe in the back with Mills and driven by a former Nixon staffer, was stopped by US Park police late at night because the driver had not turned on the headlights. Mills was intoxicated and his face was cut from a scuffle with Foxe. When police approached the car, Foxe leapt from the car and jumped into the nearby Tidal Basin. Despite the scandal, Mills was re-elected to Congress in November 1974 with 60% of the vote, but in December he drunkenly staggered onstage at a Boston strip club where Ms. Foxe was performing. Soon after this second embarrassment Mills was forced to step down from his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. Mills eventually acknowledged his alcoholism, sought treatment at the West Palm Beach Institute, and joined Alcoholics Anonymous. He did not seek re-election in 1976.