LAWYER FLUG LED SENATE TO PROBE WATERGATE.
Aide to Kennedy was thorn in Nixon's side
James Flug, a Washington lawyer and hard- driving aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy who helped defeat two of Nixon's Supreme Court nominees and spearheaded the first Senate investigation into the Watergate scandal, died of lymphoma Dec. 9 at home in the District of Columbia. He was 81.
Flug went to Washington in 1963, clerking for a federal appeals court judge after graduating from Harvard Law. He spent his career enmeshed in U. S. politics, working as chief counsel to Kennedy on the Judiciary Committee; executive director of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association; head of Energy Action, a public-interest group that battled the oil industry; and as Washington counsel to generic drugmakers.
Flug's team failed to block the Supreme Court confirmations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, but did help defeat Nixon's nominees G. Harrold Carswell and Clement Haynsworth — the first time since 1894 that two Supreme Court nominees were turned down.
Nixon biographer John Farrell said that “Over time, Flug's digging and leading participation with (lawyer) Marian Wright Edelman, the leadership conference on civil rights, the legal community and other liberal Senate aides and senators turned the tide.”
His friend Steven Roberts, a veteran political journalist, once likened the energetic Flug to “a bowling ball roaring down the alley.”
Melody Miller, a longtime Kennedy aide, said, “I don't think I ever saw him stroll through the office. He was always rushing, needing to meet with the senator, return some phone calls, write a speech. Jimmy functioned at a faster pace than anybody I ever saw.”
Flug worked with Kennedy on legislation including the Gun Control Act of 1968, and helped shepherd a 1970 extension of the Voting Rights Act, which lowered the national voting age to 18.
Flug also led an investigation into allegations the Nixon administration had meddled in an antitrust case involving International Telephone and Telegraph Corp., in exchange for help funding the 1972 Republican National Convention.
The controversy led to the resignation of Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, a separate scandal that caused Nixon to leave office.