Congressman under fire after frat run-in

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Republican Rep. John Sweeney's attendance at a beer-drinking, college fraternity party has drawn criticism from Democrats who accused the New York lawmaker of using poor judgment.

"What is a 50-year-old congressman doing at a frat party at 1 in the morning cavorting with students 30 years his junior? Teaching them how a bill becomes a law?" Blake Zeff, a spokesman for New York Democrats, said Friday.

Sweeney stopped by the Alpha Delta Phi party at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., late last Friday, a visit first reported by the college newspaper, the Concordiensis. The paper also printed a photo of the lawmaker posing with students. Local newspapers in the region posted similar photos online.

Sweeney told The Associated Press Friday he wasn't drunk and brushed off the criticism as silly.

"If I'd known going to a frat house would get me that much attention I would have done it earlier," he joked, adding that he went to another area college Friday to accept an award.

"I was walking around a neighborhood meeting my friend's customers. I went over and I was listening to what they had to say, shaking their hands, because that's what I was asked to do and that was it. They seemed like nice kids, to be honest with you."

The congressman charged the Democratic criticism as "another sign they've got no issues to try to talk about and they're going to try to make something out of nothing, because sadly that's what they've devolved into."

As a rule, campus-registered fraternity parties are allowed four kegs of beer that security taps to start the event and then unplugs at 2 a.m.

John Tomlin, a sophomore who attended the party and wrote the story for the college newspaper, told The Associated Press on Friday that Sweeney "was loud, he was swearing" but he never saw the congressman consume any alcohol.

Tomlin said he drank before the party, but not during it.