Prostitute Loving Vitter Loses Louisiana Governor's Race

With so many Republicans falling into the thoroughly despicable category nowadays, it is sometimes difficult to estimate which ones are the most despicable.  By any measure, prostitute loving, gay hating Senator David Vitter (R-La) has to rank near the top in terms of both utter hypocrisy and sleaze factor.  Vitter for years ridiculously used the excuse that he had repented from his erroneous ways to get himself reelected by simpletons and godly folk in Louisiana.  Last night Louisiana voters seemingly finally got their heads out of their asses and Vitter went down to Democrat John Bel Edwards who garnered 56% of the vote.  While the results suggest that Republicans in Louisiana may be belatedly coming to their senses, the same unfortunately doesn't hold true elsewhere.  A piece in Talking Points Memo looks at Vitter's delicious loss.  Here are highlights:

[I]t is nice to see the political career of David Vitter - someone we've been following closely at TPM for almost a decade - go down in flames tonight. But there's an additional part of the story, an additional piece of good news. As Catherine Thompson explained here, Vitter devoted the last week of his campaign to demagoguing the Syrian refugee issue in a desperate effort to save himself. He even went beyond the standard scare talk and hyperbole to trying to whip hysteria against a specific Syrian refugee who Vitter falsely claimed had mysteriously disappeared and was now at large in the state. (The man in question had, all through official channels and with appropriate notifications, been relocated to the Washington, DC region where he had relatives.)

[T]he race had become a potential bellwether for Syrian refugee hysteria and politics. Perhaps even the fear of terrorism or hatred for the desperate and forlorn was not enough to overcome the state's building revulsion for the man-child senator.  

Not only did Vitter not make a comeback. The final election results (almost a 10 point win) suggest the last minute immigrant-terror bashing had no effect at all. 

We're still seeing how this all plays out. I don't mean to tell you that Syrian refugee hysteria politics is nothing. But in this case it wasn't enough. Indeed, it does not appear to have helped Vitter at all - not even to partially close the gap. And that is worth noting.

Congressional Democrats Target David Vitter on Prostitution

Louisiana Senator David Vitter: Hypocrite and Sex Crimes Criminal

There are few bigger hypocrites in the U. S. Congress than GOP Senator David Vitter.  Vitter pretends to be a "family values" Republican yet has a documented history of using prostitutes both in Louisian and the District of Coumbia even though he is a married man.  y of using prostitutes both in Louisiana and in the District of Columbia even though he is married.  Sadly, it is all too typical of today's GOP where one can pretty much count on the GOP elected officials who bloviate the most about "family values" or rails the most against gay marriage are the ones you'll see cheating on their wives or seeking out gay sex trysts like former Virginia 2nd District Congressman Ed Schrock. Politico looks at a Democratic push to penalize such hypocrisy and the hypocrisy of Vitter in particular.  Here are excerpts:

Senate Democrats have had all they can take from David Vitter and his fixation on Obamacare — and they’re dredging up his past prostitution scandal to hit back.

Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, has infuriated Democrats this week by commandeering the Senate floor, demanding a vote on his amendment repealing federal contributions to help pay for lawmakers’ health care coverage.

But Democratic senators are preparing a legislative response targeting a sordid Vitter episode. If Vitter continues to insist on a vote on his proposal, Democrats could counter with one of their own: Lawmakers will be denied those government contributions if there is “probable cause” they solicited prostitutes.

According to draft legislation obtained by POLITICO, Democrats are weighing whether to force a Senate vote on a plan that would effectively resurrect Vitter’s past if the conservative Republican continues to press forward with his Obamacare-bashing proposal.

Such a hardball move could bring back uncomfortable memories of the 2007 “D.C. Madam” scandal in which Vitter’s phone number turned up in a Washington-based prostitution ring. Vitter apologized for committing a “very serious sin” but did not elaborate. In 2008, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics decided not to move forward with the matter because the alleged conduct occurred before Vitter became a senator.

There are three options Democratic senators are weighing in response to Vitter’s proposal.

Under one scenario, no federal contribution may be given to a lawmaker or an aide if a congressional ethics committee has “probable cause to determine” that the individual has “engaged in the solicitation of prostitution.”

Another option includes broader language that would deny contributions to those found to have engaged in “improper conduct reflecting discreditably on the congressional office involved.”

And a third proposal would deny coverage to lawmakers who vote for the Vitter plan, even if it doesn’t become law.

Since the prostitution scandal erupted in 2007, Vitter has methodically tried to move past it. He won reelection in 2010 and now serves as the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

While Vitter never admitted to having used prostitutes, he did offer a public apology for the incident. His wife Wendy stood next to the senator during a high-profile press conference a week after the scandal broke.

In virtually every state, soliciting a prostitute is a criminal offense.   It's interesting how Vitter's friends saved him from criminal prosecution.

Italy's Anti-Gay Berlusconi Had Many Prostitutes

One can only assume that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has been taking notes from Louisiana's prostitute loving U. S. Senator David Vitter in that Berlusconi is virulently anti-gay, apparently finds it impossible to keep his zipper up around women who are not his wife, and claims to be the champion of religious values and friend of the Vatican's anti-gay jihad. The hypocrisy is stunning - especially as reports are coming out that Berlusconi frequented many prostitutes, including one reportedly who was still a minor. If the later charge proves true, it would be Divine justice to see Berlusconi prosecuted and convicted. Time magazine looks at the bigoted Berlusconi's legal problems which I for one hope intensify. Here are some highlights:
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Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi had sex with a significant number of prostitutes, Milan prosecutors alleged Monday in documents seeking authorization to search some of his properties.
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The prosecutors are leading a probe aimed at determining if the 74-year-old media mogul paid for sex with a 17-year-old Moroccan girl nicknamed Ruby who attended parties at one of his villas last year. Prostitution isn't a crime in Italy, but exploiting or aiding prostitution with minors is.
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The scandal, which exploded Friday with word that Berlusconi was under investigation, gained momentum Monday with the arrival in parliament of a nearly 400-page dossier from prosecutors on the case.
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The teen, now 18, has said she was among a bevy of young women invited to parties at Berlusconi's Arcore villa near Milan. She has said in a TV interview that the premier last year gave her euro 7,000 ($9,000) to help her financially.
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Prosecutors want police to search an apartment complex in Segrate, near Milan, which includes the offices they alleged could contain documentation that young women were given money and rent-free apartments — in another residential complex — by Berlusconi in compensation for prostitution.
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Among those associates prosecutors alleged helped procure the prostitutes are a young woman who is now a provincial government official from Berlusconi's party; a longtime executive in the premier's private TV empire, and a talent agent for entertainment programs.

Prostitute Loving U. S. Senator Supports "Birther" Lawsuit

One has to wonder what is in the water in Louisiana - I don't mean now, since we know BP oil is seeping in everywhere along the coast and into Lake Pontchartrain - but rather when David Vitter was elected to the United States Senate . The guy is an admitted adulterer and frequenter of prostitutes both in his home state and in Washington, D.C., yet continues to be embraced as a "family values" Republican. The guy takes hypocrisy to a new level as do his political supporters. Now, Vitter is demonstrating just what a loon and political whore he is with his statements that he supports "birther" lawsuits questioning Barack Obama's citizenship. There are many reasons to not support Obama - as LGBT Americans are sadly discovering - but the lunatic claim that he's not a U.S. citizen is not one of them. Those that believe that Obama's not an American probably also believe that they have been abducted by little green men in spaceships. Indeed, they probably could use a stay in a mental institution. Yet, Vitter is out there pandering to them and in the process making prostitutes look down right virtuous. Here are highlights from a Time article that looks at Vitter's latest prostituting of himself:
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Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana says he supports conservative organizations challenging President Barack Obama's citizenship in court. Vitter, who is running for re-election, made the comments at a town hall-style event in Metairie, La., on Sunday when a constituent asked what he would do about what the questioner said was Obama's "refusal to produce a valid birth certificate."
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With the crowd applauding the question, Vitter responded that he doesn't personally have standing to bring litigation. "But I support conservative legal organizations and others who would bring that to court," he said, according to a video of the event. "I think that is the valid and most possibly effective grounds to do it."
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So-called birthers have challenged Obama's standing as president by arguing that he was not born in the United States. Hawaii officials have repeatedly confirmed the president's citizenship, and his Hawaiian birth certificate has been made public, along with newspaper birth notices published when he was born in 1961.
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His spokesman did not immediately respond to a question about whether the senator doubts Obama's citizenship.

40 Years Later, Still Second-Class Americans

Frank Rich is one of my favorite columnists - he can write such hard hitting and sarcastic columns that cut to the heart of issues. Today his column looks at the status of LGBT rights forty (40) years after the Stonewall Riots (the Stonewall Inn is pictured at left). Yes, much has improved for LGBT Americans, but in many states such as Virginia, we remain second or third class citizens due to ignorance and most importantly religious based bigotry. That gays continue to be treated as second class citizens due to our non-conformity with the religious views of others makes a mockery of the freedom of religion that the USA and states like Virginia claim to grant to all citizens. The fact that gays face religious based discrimination daily shows this promise of religious freedom to be a lie. As long as such discrimination continues and gays are legally inferior and abused by homophobic judges, etc., the image that America like to project of itself to the world is false and also a lie. Here are some column highlights from the New York Times:

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LIKE all students caught up in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, I was riveted by the violent confrontations between the police and protestors in Selma, 1965, and Chicago, 1968. But I never heard about the several days of riots that rocked Greenwich Village after the police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in the wee hours of June 28, 1969 — 40 years ago today. Then again, I didn’t know a single person, student or teacher, male or female, in my entire Ivy League university who was openly identified as gay. And though my friends and I were obsessed with every iteration of the era’s political tumult, we somehow missed the Stonewall story. Not hard to do, really.

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But if we had read them, would we have cared? It was typical of my generation, like others before and after, that the issue of gay civil rights wasn’t on our radar screen. Not least because gay people, fearful of harassment, violence and arrest, were often forced into the shadows. As David Carter writes in his book “Stonewall,” at the end of the 1960s homosexual sex was still illegal in every state but Illinois. It was a crime punishable by castration in seven states. No laws — federal, state or local — protected gay people from being denied jobs or housing. If a homosexual character appeared in a movie, his life ended with either murder or suicide.

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On Monday, President Obama will commemorate Stonewall with an East Room reception for gay leaders. Some of the invitees have been fiercely critical of what they see as his failure, thus far, to redeem his promise to be a “fierce advocate” for their still unfulfilled cause. The rancor increased this month, after the Department of Justice filed a brief defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the most ignominious civil rights betrayal under the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton. . . . The White House has also asserted that its Stonewall ceremony was “long planned” — even though it sure looks like damage control.

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But the most prevalent theory is that Obama, surrounded by Clinton White House alumni with painful memories, doesn’t want to risk gay issues upending his presidency, as they did his predecessor’s in 1993. . . . The cultural climate is far different today, besides. Now, roughly 75 percent of Americans support an end to Don’t Ask, and gay issues are no longer a third rail in American politics. Gay civil rights history is moving faster in the country, including on the once-theoretical front of same-sex marriage, than it is in Washington. If the country needs any Defense of Marriage Act at this point, it would be to defend heterosexual marriage from the right-wing “family values” trinity of Sanford, Ensign and Vitter.

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No president possesses that magic wand, but Obama’s inaction on gay civil rights is striking. So is his utterly uncharacteristic inarticulateness. The Justice Department brief defending DOMA has spoken louder for this president than any of his own words on the subject. Chrisler noted that he has given major speeches on race, on abortion and to the Muslim world. “People are waiting for that passionate speech from him on equal rights,” she said, “and the time is now.”

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Action would be even better. It’s a press cliché that “gay supporters” are disappointed with Obama, but we should all be. Gay Americans aren’t just another political special interest group. They are Americans who are actively discriminated against by federal laws. If the president is to properly honor the memory of Stonewall, he should get up to speed on what happened there 40 years ago, when courageous kids who had nothing, not even a public acknowledgment of their existence, stood up to make history happen in the least likely of places.

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LGBT Americans are citizens just as much as the hate-filled Christianists who seek to continue to make our lives a living hell. If Obama truly believes in equality for all Americans, he will heed Rich's advise.

Another GOP Hypocrisy Erruption

What is it about "family values" Republicans who whine about the need to "protect marriage" by forbidding us gays to have it while they go out and cheat on their spouses either in affairs like that of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Nevada Senator John Ensign, the use of prostitutes like Louisiana Senator David Vitter, or gay sex trysts like former Congressman Ed Schrock? One almost begins to wonder whether there are any GOP politicians who are not seeking sex on the side outside of their marriages. The hypocrisy factor is off the charts. If these blowhards are so worried about the "sanctity of marriage, why don't they begin by honoring their own marriage vows. Here a peak at CNN's coverage on Sanford:

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South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, just back from a secret trip to Argentina unknown to his staff or his wife, admitted Wednesday he has carried on an extramarital affair with a woman in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "I've been unfaithful to my wife," Sanford told a news conference in Columbia, South Carolina. "I developed a relationship with what started as a dear, dear friend from Argentina."

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The affair began in the last year and was discovered five months ago, Sanford said without elaborating. He added that he and his wife were trying to work through it. In a statement issued later Wednesday, Sanford's wife, Jenny, said she asked him to move out two weeks earlier but was still open to a reconciliation for the benefit of their children.

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As for the larger implications for the GOP - which is fast becoming the party of non-stop sex scandals - here are some highlights from the Washington Post:

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Mark Sanford's summer adventure to Argentina -- no, he was not hiking the Appalachian Trail, as his aides incorrectly told reporters -- is now a full-fledged personal and family embarrassment, a story of infidelity followed by a public confession of the kind that has become all too familiar from political leaders.

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But Sanford's story is more than personal. For a Republican Party down on its luck, the governor's disappearance and subsequent rambling apology to his wife, his family, his close friends and all the people of South Carolina draw more unwelcome publicity to a party that needs but cannot seem to get any good news.

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Coming a week after Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) admitted to an extramarital affair, the scandal will impact the Republicans in several ways. First, it further damages the GOP brand, potentially driving away more voters or at least making it more difficult to win back some of those who abandoned the party in the past two elections. Second, it could disillusion social and religious conservatives -- a critically important part of the Republican coalition -- who may now wonder whether those who share the Republican label truly share their values. Third, the Sanford saga removes one more new-generation GOP leader from the field of prospective 2012 candidates, adding to doubts about the strength of the party's bench.

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One has to wonder when the so-called "values voters" are going to wake up to the fact that the GOP plays them for suckers since its elected officials seem unable to keep their zippers zipped up when outside of their own homes?

GOP Silence on Ensign's Affair

In typical hypocritical fashion, members of the self-styled "party of family values" have remained pretty much silent about the confession of one of their U.S. Senators - John Ensign pictured at left - who was doing one of his staff members for the better part of a year. What is particularly telling is that the latest GOP adulterer in the past condemned Bill Clinton for his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Ensign joins the ranks of family values frauds like David "I love Prostitutes" Vitter. Imagine the GOP (and Christianist) outcry if the adulterer had been a Democrat. Dana Milbank has a column in the Washington Post that looks at this typical GOP conduct. Here are some highlights:

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As newly confessed adulterer John Ensign went to ground in Las Vegas yesterday, his Senate Republican colleagues here in Washington reprised a familiar ritual: averting their gaze.

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"It would be intellectually dishonest for me to comment on it," declared Chuck Grassley of Iowa, pausing on his way to lunch with GOP colleagues. "I'm late," announced David Vitter of Louisiana, brushing past a knot of reporters. "I'm not going to say anything," vowed Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Senate Republican, pausing briefly beneath a portrait of John C. Calhoun. "Byyye!" he called, waving back at his questioners as he walked into lunch.

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It was, as Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas artfully put it, "a no-comment day." Members of the Senate GOP caucus are becoming quite expert at the procedure, having had practice tamping down previous indiscretions by Vitter (D.C. Madam), Ted Stevens (shiatsu massage lounger) and Larry Craig (Minneapolis airport). Ensign faces an additional hurdle: His moral politics (he led the push to drum Craig out of the chamber, calling his behavior "embarrassing for the Senate") left him open to charges of hypocrisy.

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Ensign's affair dealt a double blow to Republicans: He wouldn't be around to lead the party in the annual Congressional Baseball Game, scheduled for last night, and he wouldn't be able to serve as a member of Senate GOP leadership anymore. "He's already resigned from leadership," Jim Bunning of Kentucky growled as he walked into the lunch meeting. This turned out to be a scoop: An official announcement followed a few minutes later.

Why Just Her - The Judicial Lynching of the D.C. Madam

Within the next week or so I will be featuring a guest post by Montgomery Sibley, the author of a new book entitled "Why Just Her, the Judicial Lynching of the D.C. Madam" that looks at the legal/judicial system as it was brought to bear on Deborah Jeane Palfrey. I have not yet finished the complimentary copy of the book that Montgomery Sibley sent to me, but suffice it to say it definitely looks like it will turn over some rocks and expose failings - and perhaps even manipulations - of the judicial system. The goal of all this? To make Deborah Jeane Palfrey's life hell and suppress the embarrassing information she possessed on Washington, D.C., power brokers - even perhaps on Emperor Palpatine Cheney and others in the Bush administration. From my own "lynching" by the Virginia judicial system in my divorce, I have zero confidence in the courts as the protectors of justice. Sibley's book looks like it will give a detailed view of how Jeane, as he refers to her throughout the book, may well have been the victim of a huge miscarriage of justice. Particularly when one considers that her clients - like David "I Love Prostitutes" Vitter, a U.S. Senator from Louisiana - got off scott free. Here are some highlights from the book website:

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Jeane became an internationally known, heroic figure for living her life without excuses and standing up to the Bush Administration’s misogynist, right-wing pandering, political agenda. The book identifies the external and internal demons that drove Jeane from an initially defiant woman willing to fight the government to a woman so despairing as to take her own life prior to sentencing upon her conviction for Prostitution Racketeering and Money Laundering.

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Starting with the execution of search on her home and seizure warrants for her bank accounts in October 2006 through her death on May 1, 2008, the 598 page book traces Jeane's final 20 months as the judicial system time and again failed to live up to its promise to insure justice. Instead, unwittingly sitting atop a list of the most powerful men in the world, that system made sure that Jeane's story would never be fully told.

Porn Star to Oppose David Vitter?

Sometimes a real news story arises that is just too funny. A case in point is a story out of Louisiana involving an effort to recruit porn star Stormy Daniels to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana now held by Republican Sen. David Vitter. You know, the same David Vitter who has a habit of using New Orleans and DC prostitutes even though he is married and claims to be a "family values" Republican. While her ability to run against Vitter is no doubt limited, even talk of her campaign hopefully will highlight the fact that Vitter is a hypocrite who sings the "family values" mantra merely to dupe the unintelligent into voting for him, Here are some highlights from CNN:

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Fans of porn star Stormy Daniels are drafting her to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana now held by Republican Sen. David Vitter. And it's no racy gimmick, they say. The Draft Stormy Web site says that "2010 presents the Pelican State with the opportunity to start with a clean slate -- to elect a representative that we can be proud of, who will work tirelessly, and who will challenge the status quo.

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Vitter is famous -- or infamous -- for his link to the "D.C. Madam," the woman who ran a prostitution ring. Elected to the Senate in 2004, he admitted to "a very serious sin in my past" in July 2007 after his phone number turned up in records of an escort service run by the late Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the D.C. Madam.

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The Draft Stormy movement said Daniels' "real world experience and special understanding of the economic hardships facing Louisianans and Americans make her uniquely qualified to take on the tough challenges we face.

Larry Craig and David Vitter Sponsor Bill To "Protect" Marriage

The Republicans have reached new levels of hypocrisy with the re-introduction of a proposed "Federal Marriage Amendment." The re-introduction of this legislation shows to what lengths the current GOP will go in order to pander to Christianists. As the Huffington Post notes, some of the sponsors are the same old gay-hating fruit cakes, but the surprising thing is that two less than paragons of marital virtue are also sponsors: Larry Craig and David Vitter. These two jerks go beyond being shameless and certainly are not exactly the poster boys for upstanding examples of the supposed sanctity of the ‘union of a man and a woman.” But then again, the GOP has increasing come to stad for nothing except hypocrisy. Here are highlights from HuffPo:

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Just this week, a group of Republican senators re-introduced the Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution, which, as we know, would ban gay marriage. This isn't especially surprising. Republicans are looking at the political landscape, and they're feeling awfully discouraged. The polls look bad, the base looks depressed, and fundraising looks iffy. Rallying the far-right troops with an anti-gay amendment to the Constitution -- even though it has no chance at even getting so much as a hearing -- might be helpful to the conservative movement.

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Most of the names are predictable -- Brownback and Inhofe, for example -- but there are two others whose names stand out: Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho). Yes, two of the principal sponsors of a constitutional amendment to "protect" marriage include one far-right Republican who hired prostitutes and another far-right Republican who was arrested for soliciting gay sex an airport men's room.

Vitter secures $100K for Louisiana anti-evolution group

I was about to log off and head to bed when I saw this article which goes to show just how disingenuous David Vitter and his Christianist allies have come to be. I guess if you land $100K for an anti-evolution program, the Christianist will close their eyes to one's frequent visits to prostitutes. Here are highlights from Raw Story (http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Vitter_secures_100K_for_Louisiana_antievolution_0924.html):

In a move ostensibly aimed at providing "better science education" in Louisiana schools, Sen. David Vitter has secured $100,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund an anti-evolution effort spearheaded by a religious group politically connected to the alleged prostitute-soliciting Republican. Vitter secured an earmark in an upcoming labor, health and education financing bill for the Louisiana Family Forum, which The New Orleans Times Picayune reports has "taken the lead in promoting 'origins science,' which includes the possibility of divine intervention in the creation of the universe."

The group was founded by Tony Perkins, a former Louisiana state lawmaker who now leads the conservative Family Research Council [and who has ties to Klan Leader David Duke]. The Louisiana Family Forum works to "present biblical principals" on public policy issues, and until a reporter questioned them about it, the group's Web site included a "battle plan to combat evolution," which argued the theory "has no place in the classroom." Despite Vitter's admission earlier this year that he used a Washington, DC, call-girl service and allegations that he frequented prostitutes in New Orleans, the first-term Republican has maintained the support of religious conservatives in his home state.

Critics torpedoed the idea that Vitter's earmark was anything but an attempt to federally subsidize religious instruction. "This is a misappropriation of public funds," Charles Kincade, a civil rights lawyer in Monroe, La., who has been involved in church-state cases told the Times Picayune. "It's a backdoor attempt to push a religious agenda in the public school system."

GOP's Other Family Values Scandal Widens

I think it is about time the GOP gets more pressure to deal with Senator Vitter's hypocrisy. If Larry Craig was pushed to resign, then Vitter should have the same standard applied to him. He has admitted to what are crimes in both D.C. and Louisiana. Here's 365gay.com's latest on Vitter:

(Beverley Hills, California) A former New Orleans prostitute who will be featured in Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine appeared at his office Tuesday to accuse Sen. David Vitter of having a sexual relationship with her in 1999. Wendy Ellis told reporters that Vitter visited her two to three times a week for sexual relations between July and November 1999.

Flynt produced parts of an Aug. 22 polygraph test that he said confirmed her account, but Ellis could provide no financial records, photographs or other evidence to support her assertion that the Louisiana Republican was a client during that time. Vitter, an advocate of "family values" who voted for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, has denied those claims.

I want the truth to be known," Ellis said. "It was a pure sexual relationship. He would come in and do his business."

Another report detailing how Vitter reportedly used a prostitute two or three times a week can be found here: (http://www.americablog.com/2007/09/vitter-was-meeting-one-prostitute-two.html). Wow, what family values!!!

Hypocrites in GOP Pile on to Larry Craig

I will admit that at first I took a fair amount of glee when I first heard the story about Larry Craig (R-Idaho). As I have commented before, I love seeing anti-gay hypocrites taken down. However, it has reached a point where the senior GOP elected officials are going into overkill and I believe Craig is getting unequal treatment. If these paragons of virtue are true going to be true to their delicate sense of morality and/or sense of dignity, then they had better start calling for a lot more resignations, starting with prostitute loving David Vitter (R-La) who has confessed to using prostitutes. Last time I checked, that was a crime in both Louisiana and the District of Columbia. Of course if we move onto financial improprieties among the GOP, the list explodes. Lastly, we have the Chimperator and Darth Vader Cheney who willy nilly trash the Constitution and the rights of citizens and arguably are war criminals under the Geneva Conventions. The following are portions of a further Washington Post article (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/idaho-guv-the-bell-has-rung-on-craig/index.html?hp):

The calls for Senator Larry Craig, Republican of Idaho and subject of a scandal involving a “lewd-conduct” arrest in a public men’s restroom, to resign are mounting. In fact, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Senator John Ensign of Nevada, has now been quoted as suggesting that Mr. Craig’s decision to plead guilty to a less serious charge of disorderly conduct from the situation at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in June would be enough for Mr. Ensign to consider doing so.

Without mentioning the “R-word,” Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” (we kid you not) Otter, a longtime colleague and friend of Senator Craig, sort of signaled that time had pretty much run out for the Idaho senator.

Just as Mr. Otter told Ms. Bash he just didn’t want to “go there” about calling for the senator’s resignation, Mr. Ensign sort of side-stepped the “R-word” too. But this is what Mr. Ensign, who is running the campaign arm for 22 Senate Republicans up for re-election in 2008, said, according to the The Associated Press today, from his home state of Nevada:

Senator Craig “admitted guilt, he pled guilty. It’s a little different situation than just being accused of something.”

Mr. Ensign stopped short of calling on Craig to resign his seat, but strongly suggested he do so. “I wouldn’t put myself hopefully in that kind of position, but if I was in a position like that, that’s what I would do,” he said. “He’s going to have to answer that for himself.”

Again, why doesn't the prostitute soliciting David Vitter have to have to account for his own admitted criminal conduct? When you claim to be the party of purity, you do not get to pick and chose which moral improprieties do not count.

Critics: GOP should treat 'DC madam senator' like Craig

I have to admit that the critics have a point and the selective treatment being dished out to Larry Craig should be applicable across the board by the party of "family values." That Craig is receiving different treatment shows the hypocrisy of the GOP - and "Values Voters" - when it comes to consistently supporting moral conduct. Here are a few highlights from a Raw Story article (http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Craigs_quick_condemnation_shows_hypocrisy_in_0830.html). Glenn Greenwald's analysis is most telling:

Less that 24 hours after he expressed regret for pleading guilty to disorderly conduct after an undercover cop said the Idaho Republican propositioned him, Craig was ousted from his committee posts in a decision Senate leaders said was "in the best interest" of the chamber. Meanwhile, it has been 52 days since Craig's GOP colleague David Vitter acknowledged the "serious sin" of soliciting a call girl, yet the Louisiana senator has not budged from his committee posts. Where Craig faced condemnation, Vitter received words of encouragement from colleagues -- or at the very least, silence.

Salon's Glenn Greenwald outlines some other possible explanations for the different treatment of Craig's and Vitter's sexual escapades. For one thing, Craig's vacant seat would be filled by a Republican governor, whereas Vitter would be replaced by a Democrat, further tipping the balance of power in the Senate. But Greenwald goes on to observe that attacks on gay Republicans have "no political cost" because they condemn none of the "values voters" upon which the party relies. Conversely, heterosexual perversion, divorce, and out-of-wedlock childbirth are substantial problems, especially in the very regions of the country where Republican support is highest, so the party is unwilling to lead moral crusades against those sins, Greenwald argues.

"The only kind of 'morality' that this movement knows or embraces is politically exploitative, cost-free morality," he says. "That is why the national Republican Party rails endlessly against homosexuality and is virtually mute about divorce and adultery: because anti-gay moralism costs virtually all of its supporters nothing (since that is a moral prohibition that does not constrain them), while heterosexual moral deviations -- from divorce to adultery to sex outside of marriage -- are rampant among the Values Voters faithful and thus removed from the realm of condemnation."

Media Field Day on Senator Vitter's Attraction to Call Girls

I have to say that I do enjoy seeing a politician who is an utter hypocrite exposed for what he really is. A casein point, of course id Senator David Vitter (R-La) who not only has admitted use of the services of the DC Madam, but apparently frequented some of New Orleans brothels as well. This is a clip from one of numerous stories all over the media:

Sen. David Vitter, who acknowledged having contacted a Washington escort service, made the admission after being called by Hustler magazine, whose investigative reporter says the sex magazine is targeting "moral hypocrites."

Less than three hours after the inquiry, the Louisiana Republican sent the Associated Press a statement Monday evening confirming that he had been in contact with Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the indicted escort-service owner dubbed the D.C. Madam. Washington reporter Dan Moldea, who is working with Hustler owner Larry Flynt, is collaborating with Palfrey on a book proposal and said yesterday that he found Vitter's number in her phone records late last week.

Larry Flynt is reportedly working on 20 other leads involving high political officials, so the fun may only be just beginning. Here are some other links to the Vitter coverage:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100587.html?hpid=news-col-blogs

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/?hpid=news-col-blogs

http://www.nbc30.com/politics/13661627/detail.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289052,00.html

BlogActive.com likewise has some funny coverage: http://www.blogactive.com/

"Family Values" Senator's Number on "DC Madam" Phone List

David Vitter, one of those "family values" members of the GOP who supported the Federal Marriage Amendment due to the Christianist fabricated need to protect the sanctity of marriage, apparently doesn't honor the sanctity of marriage in his own life. The Washington Post reports today that Vitter has confessed to his less than Godly conduct:

"Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) apologized last night after his telephone number appeared in the phone records of the woman dubbed the "D.C. Madam," making him the first member of Congress to become ensnared in the high-profile case.

The statement containing Vitter's apology said his telephone number was included on phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates dating from before he ran for the Senate in 2004.

Not surprisingly, Vitter has put out one of the typical meally mouth apology statements all so typical of these hypocrites:

"Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling," Vitter continued. "Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there -- with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way."

I feel sincere sorrow for Vitter's family, but none for this anti-gay hypocrite.