"It happened all the time," she says. "It was out there so strongly — and wrongly. It was difficult to see it hurt him and his family. I didn't think he was a tough boss. I saw other staffers who adored him and still do. Staffers who had worked on other staffs said they had never worked for a politician who was so warm and willing to give you time. He was that way with everyone."

Says David, "I've worked for my dad on campaigns. He's a tough boss. He demands a lot. He wants things well researched, for instance, so he can make a good decision. It's not for everybody. But in terms of the press he's had, it's unfortunate. It doesn't represent who he is. He's so good-humored and has real deep concerns about issues. He also takes things personally and can get his feelings hurt."

The tailspin

Cook remembers vividly one day, at the height of the 18 months of controversy, when he was driving home after a vacation with his family. They picked up a newspaper in Monticello, and as they resumed driving, Camille began reading a story in the newspaper about her husband and sobbed.

"She didn't stop crying the rest of the way home, six hours," says Cook. "I mean, crying bitterly, out loud. This story had me as the craziest nut case ever."

Cook believes he would still be a congressman today if he had just kept his mouth shut and toed the Republican Party line. "There's no question in my mind that if I had been a party guy, combined with the effort I put into politics, I'd still be there," he says. "They made it clear that if I didn't conflict with the party, I could be a senator or governor. My independence cost me a lot."

In the end, Cook left Washington soundly beaten on all fronts. Even his business suffered. House ethics rules forbade him from holding a position in a company or talking to customers, even if he owned the company outright. Somehow he didn't learn this until after he was elected to office.

By the time Cook left Congress in 2000, his business had lost most of its major customers and was in decline. The company's former customers said they took their business elsewhere because they couldn't deal with Cook, who not only was the company's owner but its salesman as well. To make matters worse, the mining industry was in a tailspin, thanks partly to foreign competition. Cook lost millions of dollars in business, which he has yet to recover.

"It takes time to rebuild," he says. "Those contracts they sign with other companies are for several years."

Cook is trying to resuscitate his business and plot his next political move, but first he must get Camille's support. She says that after they left Washington, "I was sick of the whole thing. I decided politics was never going to be in our lives again after seeing what someone will do when they're just out to get you."

The family's passions