THOSE PRE-LEWINSKY SEX SCANDALS SEEM SO QUAINT NOW: Former Sen. Bob Packwood Returns to Talk Taxes, Not Scandal.

The Finance Committee was in a mood to reminisce Tuesday morning about the good old days, when Sen. Bob Packwood played a key role in negotiating a bipartisan overhaul of the tax code.

The Oregon Republican was back Tuesday at the committee he once chaired to testify about that bipartisan success, where lawmakers in both parties worked with President Ronald Reagan on the 1986 tax deal. Packwood’s successor, Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden, was on the dais as the ranking member of the Finance panel, having held the gavel last Congress with Democrats in charge.

But no one really wanted to talk about the circumstances that led to Wyden’s arrival in the Senate: Packwood abruptly surrendered his gavel and resigned from the chamber amid a sexual harassment scandal that roiled the chamber. For all his legislative skill — and he had plenty — at the end of the day, Packwood was a disgrace.

Wyden distanced himself from the invitation of Packwood, who left the Senate in 1995 after the chamber spent 33 months investigating his unwanted sexual advances toward women.

I would like to see a 1986-style tax deal, but it’s hard to see Obama going along with anything like that.