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Robb had been a straight arrow his whole life -- an ROTCer at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, one of the birthplaces of the anti-war movement; a soldier during Vietnam; a faithful husband and father of three girls.

That changed. In the early '80s, then-Gov. Robb's marriage to Lynda was on the rocks. He reportedly consulted a divorce attorney. At the same time, Robb was hanging with a fast crowd of real-estate developers, a man named Bruce Thompson foremost among them. Wild girls, wild parties. It was the '80s, remember.

Many of the subsequent allegations about these wild days and nights had trickled out in the media before Robb was elected to the Senate. In 1987, Robb's name came up in a federal investigation, led by U.S. Attorney Bob Wiechering, into coke 'n' whore parties in Virginia Beach. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Robb was believed to be involved.

In August 1988, the Virginian-Pilot/Ledger-Star, of Norfolk ran a front-pager noting that "10 of [Robb's] friends or acquaintances were among those drawn into a federal cocaine probe now winding down in Norfolk. The 10 businessmen, each of whom resided at the ocean front, have been convicted, indicted or given immunity from prosecution in exchange for cooperation in the two-year investigation. Robb's ties to some of them were tenuous, but others were often in his company when he visited Virginia Beach."

His Republican opponent in the 1988 Senate election, Maurice Dawkins, seized on the issue, running harsh ads addressing the subject. "Newspapers report Chuck Robb at numerous parties with open cocaine use," one such ad said. "Robb's friends have been indicted, given immunity for testimony or gone to prison on drug charges ... Bad judgment."

"On Nov. 8, Virginians should just say no," Dawkins said in campaign appearances.

But few voters paid heed. "This 'issue' should be consigned to the garbage heap," sniffed the editorial page of the Washington Post.

On Nov. 8, 1988, Virginians just said yes, and Robb trounced Dawkins handily -- 71-29 percent -- the largest vote total for any office in the history of the commonwealth.

But Robb staffers were concerned. As first reported by Regardie's Magazine, in the fall of 1990, Robb staffers David McCloud, Bobby Watson and press secretary Steve Johnson sat down with political consultant Robert Squier. They made two decisions that day that later exploded in their boss's face.

One, they strategized about focusing the media's attention away from Robb and toward the new governor, Doug Wilder, an African-American Democrat with presidential ambitions and with whom Robb had feuded for the better part of a decade. In 1988, one of Robb's Virginia Beach buddies, Bobby Dunnington, had taped Gov. Wilder on his car phone, gloating about the fact that the nasty stories about Robb were finally making the papers.

"He's finished," Wilder said on the tape, laughing and bragging that he'd been the source of one of the stories. Robb's political operatives cluelessly believed that the tape was a smoking gun, calling into question the veracity of all of the Virginia Beach stories, tainting all of the tales as politically motivated.

Squier's second bad decision was to dispatch Team Robb to Virginia Beach to find out what had actually happened with their boss. Had Robb used cocaine? Had he been diddling around? If they were going to be prepared for any forthcoming press inquiries, they had to figure out what had actually happened.

Meanwhile, all stayed quiet for Robb's first two years as a senator ... a little too quiet. The Washington Post's Baker had been sniffing around, but no bombshells seemed to be forthcoming.

In the Senate, Robb tried to stake out the same moderate ground that had gotten him there, devoting most of his energies to fiscal conservatism and military hawkishness. Robb is one of only two senators honored by inclusion in the Concord Coalition's deficit reduction honor roll for six years in a row. He is the only senator ever to serve simultaneously on all three national security committees: Intelligence, Foreign Relations and Armed Services.

Then, suddenly, in April 1991, all of Robb's hard work was undermined when he was surprised by a producer for the NBC-TV show "Exposé" who didn't come a-knockin' with fiscal responsibility on her mind.

Robb was grilled about the use of cocaine at those Virginia Beach parties, about women named Frankie, "the two Tinas" and a former Miss Virginia USA named Tai Collins. He fumbled, and wasn't able to talk straight. He said that he had seen Collins (whom he had formerly denied even knowing) in his room at New York City's Hotel Pierre, but that all she had given him was a "nude massage."

His staff panicked. In a preemptive strike that quickly backfired, Robb released the two-and-a-half-hour videotape of the interview to the press before NBC's "Exposé" ran, thus giving other media outlets an excuse to air his dirty laundry to an even larger audience.

"This girl was down on her knees ... doing cocaine right in front of Gov. Robb," a car dealer named Gary Pope told the cameras, describing one 1983 party.

The media went bananas, of course. "Some journalists said the story was fair game because it conflicts with Robb's carefully cultivated image as a milk-drinking, jut-jawed ex-Marine family man," noted Post media critic Howard Kurtz at the time. Robb's Democratic rival, then-Gov. Wilder, didn't exactly squelch the rumors. "We have no comment regarding what is being said about Robb's sexual relations and drug involvement," Wilder's press secretary told reporters. There were reports, however, that Wilder had called on the state police to investigate Robb.

Then the taped recording of Wilder on his car phone surfaced. The fact that it had been recorded illegally by Robb's associate Dunnington seemed to offend many more people than Wilder's nasty cackles at Robb's troubles.

From the Robb camp came only more fumbling, more obfuscation, more lies. Robb's staffers -- McCloud, Watson and Johnson -- were put on "paid leave" and hung out to dry. Assistant U.S. Attorney Wiechering reared his head again to investigate. Dunnington eventually pleaded guilty to one count of wiretapping.

By now, Robb had suffered irreparable damage.

Collins soon appeared in Playboy, as "The Woman Senator Charles Robb Couldn't Resist." Not quite the kind of national media splash Robb had been hoping for.

Since the rumors had first surfaced, in 1988, Robb staffers had been pleading with their boss to acknowledge some wrongdoing other than just lamely copping to being "naive" about his associates, which was all he had heretofore admitted. Soon it would be reelection time, and something needed to be done.

In March 1994, Robb finally took their advice and sent roughly 450 of his supporters a four-page mea minima culpa. Long before President Clinton was parsing words and orifices, Robb confessed to actions "not appropriate to a married man ... I am clearly vulnerable on the question of socializing under circumstances not appropriate for a married man ... For a period of time at Virginia Beach, I let my guard down, and when I did I also let Lynda down. But with Lynda's forgiveness and God's, I put that private chapter behind me many years ago."

Next page | "My weakness for the 'fairer sex'"