The Home Folks Stand By Dan

He's "Citizen of the Year"

A Marine Corps League honor guard in full uniform marched into the hall carrying American and Marine Corps flags. The sellout crowd of 525 people sang America the Beautiful, then rose and cheered the guest of honor. Proclamations praising him came from the Pennsylvania state senate and house of representatives. Schoolchildren sent their congratulations. Speaker after speaker added encomiums, one of them terming him "the greatest Congressman ever."

Thus, in a show of defiance toward outsiders who have criticized one of their own, citizens of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and the Wilkes-Barre Lions Club last week honored Democratic Congressman Daniel J. Flood as their "Citizen of the Year." Not mentioned, of course, during the long evening of affectionate oratory at the Gus Genetti Hotel ballroom was the uncomfortable fact that the dapper 74-year-old legislator is a prime target of a federal influence-peddling investigation. Indeed, coincidentally on the eve of the dinner, the Justice Department released an affidavit in which David Marston, the former U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia whose dismissal by the Carter Administration created a national controversy, predicted that Flood was "certain" to be indicted. But the closest anyone at the Genetti came to bringing up Flood's troubles was when County Commissioner Edmund Wideman chastised the nation's press for "unfair" coverage of the Congressman.

Everyone else stuck to celebrating Flood's services to his constituents during his 30 years in Congress. At the beginning of the program, the lights were turned out and the diners lit hundreds of matches to show how Flood had "restored light" to Wilkes-Barre in 1972 by securing more than $1 billion in federal aid to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Agnes. Said Flood, who sported a green carnation in his buttonhole in honor of St. Patrick's Day: "I have done my best, in the best way I know how, to provide whatever service I can to the people I represent." No one in the audience had any doubts that in November Flood would easily win re-election to his 16th term in the House.

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