CongressionalBadBoys.com | home | Wilson Calif. Charles H. Wilson Democrat, California (1963-1980) The Honorable Charles Wilson, who was defeated in a California primary election in 1980, became the third member of the House during the twentieth century to be censured.  (The Honorable Thomas L. Blanton, Democrat-Texas, who inserted obscene materials into the Congressional Record in 1921, and Charles C. Diggs, Jr., Democrat-Michigan, who padded his office payroll and made personal use of public funds.)  (Later the Honorable Gerry E. Studds, Democrat-Massachusetts, and the Honorable Daniel B. Crane, Republican-Illinois, would be censured for sexual misconduct).   (Click here for a complete list of censured, reprimanded, and expelled members of Congress).  When a Member of Congress is censured, he or she must stand before the full House while being admonished by the Speaker. Wilson also had been reprimanded by Congress in 1978 for making false statements before the House Ethics Committee during its investigation of Korean influence peddling.  Wilson had originally lied, denying that he received anything of value from Tongsun Park.  Wilson lated admitted that he received a $1,000 wedding gift from Park. When a Member of Congress is reprimanded, he or she does not have to stand before the House to receive the medicine. Wilson had converted $25,000 in campaign funds to his own use and accepted $10,500 from a man with a direct interest in legislation before Congress.  The censure vote automatically cost Wilson his chairmanship of the Postal Operations and Services Subcommittee of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee.  Wilson said it was all politics.  "A majority of my colleagues in the House of Representatives chose to ignore the facts of my case," he said.  (Click here for other examples of "Lyin' Through Their Teeth"). Hey, don't blame me--it's the changing standards.  That was Wilson's excuse.  His alleged crimes occurred in 1971 and 1972, before the post-Watergate morality seeped in to the Congress. The standards have changed, he said, "from one era to another."   Source:  "Rep. Charles H. Wilson Censured by House," New York Times, June 11, 1980, A16.