 Sonny & Cher became household names in America in the 1960s and ’70s. |
What do legendary entertainer Sonny Bono, a popular TV midget and the impeachment of a U.S. president have in common?
Plenty, according to a brand-new book that lifts the curtain on previously untold moments – serious, poignant and hilarious – regarding the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky sex scandal that gripped America in the late 1990s.
The man leading the House impeachment proceedings against Clinton was then–Congressman James Rogan, who has now authored “Catching Our Flag: Behind the Scenes of a Presidential Impeachment.”
In the book, Rogan gets up close and personal when talking about his congressional colleague, the late Rep. Sonny Bono.
“He wasn’t terribly articulate,” Rogan writes of Bono, “but long before he became a politician he was a chart-topping pop singer and a successful songwriter. He really couldn’t sing well, yet he had 10 gold records and some 80 million sales worldwide. He couldn’t act, but his television show was a top-rated network hit for five years.”
Sonny turned his entertainment buzz into business success, becoming a thriving restaurateur. In 1988, he was elected mayor of Palm Springs, Calif., and then won a race for Congress in 1994.
One day on the House floor, Bono told Rogan, “You’re a no-bullsh– guy who doesn’t put on airs. Some of these other guys around here really have their heads up their a–.”
Rogan says Sonny was amazed he was working in the same building in which great names in U.S. history had served, including Presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
 U.S. Rep. Sonny Bono, R-Calif., was thrilled to be a member of Congress. (courtesy London Telegraph) |
The author says Sonny became irked when Rogan didn’t share the same sense of wonderment.
Sonny told him: “Here you are – a guy that used to bartend on the Sunset Strip. Here I am – a guy that used to drive a meat truck on the Sunset Strip. Don’t you ever look around this chamber and wonder how in the hell we ever got here?”
Rogan responded mischievously, “Sonny, I sit here all the time, look around this chamber, and wonder how in the hell you ever got here! I know how I got here, you jackass – I went to law school!”
Sonny laughed so hard, the speaker called for order in the House.
Despite his lack of political polish, Bono apparently had a gift for diffusing hostile situations.
Rogan recounts how during his first year in office, Newt Gingrich’s speakership nearly collapsed when some disgruntled conservatives tried to depose him. As Rogan watched the wheels start falling off the historic Republican Revolution, Sonny broke the tension by slipping into a nostalgic look at his Tinseltown years while trying to tie in a lesson.
 Sonny & Cher became international stars with their breakout hit, “I Got You Babe.” |
“I remember being on top of the entertainment world,” he began. “I had a hit show, a great wife, and a beautiful little girl. I had everything. Then, in a single day, it was gone.”
Sonny then talked about the demise of both his marriage to Cher and his Hollywood career.
Oblivious to the eye-rolling glances of some colleagues, Sonny continued: “I ended up being one of those celebrities spending all of his time trying to regain his fame. I knew I had hit rock-bottom when I became a regular on a TV show that was the elephant graveyard for washed-up celebrities: ‘Fantasy Island.'”
Sonny went on to explain how he was sitting in his trailer getting drunk while waiting to shoot a scene:
The script called for me to walk up to Herve Villechaize [the dwarf actor who played Tattoo, the island host’s diminutive assistant], and say, “Isn’t it a beautiful day, Tattoo?” Instead, I said, “Isn’t it a beautiful day, Harpoon?” I don’t know where the hell “Harpoon” came from. The director yelled, “Cut!”
Herve Villechaize, right, starred with Ricardo Montalban on “Fantasy Island” in the 1970s.
Herve started yelling and saying I was a stupid a–hole. So, I’m just standing there looking at him and thinking to myself, “I’ve lost my money, my family, and my fame. I’ve lost it all. I’ve written 10 gold records, and now all I have to show for it is I have to stand here and get screamed at by a g–damned midget!”
The room broke into howls of laughter, and Rogan says it no longer mattered if the story had any relevance, since Sonny returned calm to the fractured caucus.
“Let’s retire for the evening to reflect on the lesson of the gentleman from California,” Newt proclaimed. “Meeting adjourned.”
The next morning, Republicans started working together again.
Sonny later explained: “Washington is just like Hollywood entertainment – execs love you when you’re on top, but when you’re down and out, they wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire. So, in both of these towns, you run a big risk of falling hard if you ever start believing your own bullsh–, or your own press agent. People need to keep a sense of perspective.”
On the last night of the 1997 congressional session, a cheerful Sonny walked up to Rogan and said, “Hey Jimmy, what’re you and Christine doing for Thanksgiving? Mary and I wanted to invite you guys over for dinner if you’re going to be in town. It’ll be the best spaghetti you ever had!”
Rogan says he blew off the invitation without much thought, but then came to a sudden realization.
“It just sank in that you and Mary invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner,” Rogan told Sonny. “Thank you. That means an awful lot. Thanksgiving is for family.”
“Yeah, I know,” Sonny said with a big smile and a back slap as he headed down the House steps into the night.
“I never saw him again,” Rogan says.
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Just before returning to Washington for the start of the 1998 congressional session, Rogan received the tragic news: while skiing in Lake Tahoe, Sonny had struck a tree and died instantly.
“Grief and shock overcame me as I remembered our last conversation – Sonny’s Thanksgiving invitation that I declined,” Rogan remembers. “I couldn’t believe he was gone.”
Bono had been a member of the House Judiciary Committee – the group that handles impeachments – and with Sonny gone, a replacement was needed.
A few days after Bono’s death, thousands of people packed into a Palm Springs church for his funeral. Among the big names in attendance were former President Ford, Cher and Henry Hyde, chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Wiping away tears with his handkerchief, Hyde told Rogan, “We can discuss this later, but remember Jim: you’re my number one boy to fill Sonny’s slot on the committee.
Rogan suggested that perhaps the funeral wasn’t the best time to discuss the matter. Then, with Hyde blotting his eyes, Rogan leaned over and whispered to him, “But – I’ll take it.”
On the night of Jan. 20, 1998, Gingrich approved a waiver allowing Rogan to be Sonny’s replacement on the Judiciary Committee.
“Less than 12 hours later,” remembers Rogan, “all hell broke loose in the press around a former White House intern – who preserved in her closet a DNA-stained blue dress.”
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