The Sex Saga (Contd.)

In Washington's current obsession with sex, there is plainly nothing sublime. But there was a growing sense of the ridiculous last week: mistresses summoning a panting press to titillating tell-all sessions, reform committees and task forces sprouting like mushrooms after a heavy rain, Congressmen quaking at the prospect that yesterday's forgotten indiscretion could be tomorrow's memorable Page One headline.

No one was suggesting that the tawdry revelations of Elizabeth Ray, Colleen Gardner and other taxpayer-subsidized playgirls were insignificant. But they were a lot less important than other congressional abuses of power. That was clearly illustrated last week when Congressman Wayne Hays of Ohio was forced to give up his chairmanship of the House Administration Committee. For five years Hays had operated the committee as a personal fief, lavishing perquisites on himself and his colleagues, placing Ohio cronies and relatives of friends on the payroll, junketeering shamelessly -and resisting the few challenges to his power. But it took Ray's revelation that she was paid $14,000 a year ostensibly as a member of the committee staff but actually as Hays' mistress to bring down the Congressman.

Although Hays tried to suggest that he would regain his powers after he is "vindicated," there was no doubt that the tyrannical Ohioan's reign on Capitol Hill had ended -permanently.

Meanwhile, there were these developments in the Washington sex saga:

>> Utah Congressman Allan T. Howe, 48, father of five, was arrested in Salt Lake City after allegedly soliciting sexual services from two policewomen posing as prostitutes. Although under pressure from some Utah Democrats and authorities of the Mormon Church, of which he is a member, Howe announced he would seek reelection.

>> Louisiana's conservative Democrat Joe D. Waggonner Jr., 57, admitted an encounter with District of Columbia police last January, but called it "an effort ... to entrap me." Vexed by Waggonner's account, Assistant Police Chief Theodore R. Zanders abandoned the department policy of silence on incidents involving Congressmen by issuing a statement that Waggonner had solicited sex from a policewoman.

>> Congressman Charles Vanik of Ohio admitted retaining a former prostitute on his district-office payroll, even after she had become ill and unable to work. But he insisted he did so out of compassion. Vanik also denied knowledge of her past.

House Republicans, meanwhile, moved to deprive the House Administration Committee of its control over congressional pay and perquisites. A task force assigned to propose improvements in House procedures was rushing a report to completion. The Democratic leadership considered hiring professionals to put House operations on an organized, business-like basis.

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