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- NATION, Page 39American NotesWASHINGTONWright's Wrong Man
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- His children were taunted by schoolmates, so they were sent
- to stay with friends. He received more than 500 angry telephone
- calls, including some death threats. Women members of Congress
- demanded his resignation.
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- Last week John Mack, 35, gave in and quit as the top
- legislative aide to House Speaker Jim Wright. The furor had
- stemmed from the Washington Post's curiously timed recounting
- of Mack's savage knife and hammer assault on college student
- Pamela Small more than 15 years ago. After serving only 27
- months in a county jail for the felony, he had been hired as a
- $9,000-a-year clerk by Wright, whose daughter was married to
- Mack's brother.
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- "I wish I could rewrite the past, but unfortunately I
- can't," said Mack, probably the most influential staffer on
- Capitol Hill. Insisted Speaker Wright, who loses his right-hand
- man as he faces a bitter survival struggle over his ethics
- problems: "I was willing to give this young man another chance,
- and I have never had occasion to regret it."
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