Talk on Hill heated about DeWine staffer's blog' of sexual trysts

The office of straight-laced Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine became the epicenter of salacious Capitol Hill gossip Wednesday, when it surfaced that an entry-level DeWine staffer apparently had been chronicling her steamy sex life on an Internet Web log, or "blog."

The blog was removed from public view after another Washington blog, known as Wonkette.com, linked to some of the racier passages from the DeWine employee's online diary. The passages detailed the woman's affairs with several men, purporting to include a married (but unnamed) chief-of-staff in a federal agency, and discussed being paid for sex.

"Most of my living expenses are thankfully subsidized by a few generous older gentlemen," wrote the staffer, who identified herself as "The Washingtonienne." "I'm sure I am not the only one who makes money on the side this way: how can anybody live on $25K/year??"

DeWine spokesmen said their office is investigating the woman's Web site operation and that she might face disciplinary ac tion.

"It is a personnel issue, and we can't discuss it at this point," said Mike Dawson, DeWine's communications director. He said he didn't know whether the woman did the things she described, or wrote fantasies.

The woman did not report to work Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. But Washington was buzzing, thanks in large part to the Wonkette.com blog, whose operator said the controversy doubled the usual traffic to her gossip and satire Web site.

The capital's audience was particularly amused that the incident occurred in the office of a conservative senator from a "very swinging" swing state in the upcoming presidential election, said Wonkette's Ana Marie Cox.

"There is a pretty low bar to being funny about politics in Washington," Cox said. "This is the kind of thing you'd expect to happen in Jerry Springer's office. Now Springer can use it if he runs against him."

Cox said she enjoyed the DeWine staffer's writing and regretted getting her into trouble by publicizing the lesser-read blog. In fact, Cox would like to help the DeWine staffer get a lit erary agent.

The staffer posted her last entry on Tuesday afternoon before the Web site was shut down:

"I just took a long lunch with X and made a quick $400. When I returned to the office, I heard that my boss was asking about my whereabouts. Loser."

The Web site reappeared late Wednesday, minus its archives. It was unclear whether the new posting was by the original author or a hacker.

Scandalous blog linked to DeWine office
By MEI-LING HOPGOOD, Cox News Service
WASHINGTON — Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine's office found itself linked to a storm of Capitol Hill gossip Wednesday amid reports that a low-level employee is the anonymous author of a salacious Web log.

The trouble began when the gossip Web site wonkette.com — a snarky, often raunchy weblog well-read by Washington insiders because it covers Washington insiders — highlighted another Web log, or blog, supposedly written by a Capitol Hill staffer.

The author, who identified herself as "the Washingtonienne," wrote that she is a staff assistant in a Senate office — a high-turnover, low-paying job — and detailed her sexual exploits, which include, she said, getting paid to have sex with older men including a "Chief of Staff at one of the gov agencies."

On Tuesday, the woman wrote: "I just took a long lunch with X and made a quick $400. When I returned to the office, I heard that my boss was asking about my whereabouts. Loser," according to wonkette.com.

It is unclear whether her musings are remotely true, even the editor of wonkette.com admits, but the gossip peaked Wednesday when wonkette.com and another irreverent site, swamp-city.com, identified the woman as an employee for Republican DeWine and reported that she had been fired.

Mike Dawson, DeWine's communications director, denied anyone had been fired. Regarding allegations that a DeWine staffer had written the blog, "We're looking into it," he said.

Meanwhile, Capitol Hill staffers were abuzz trying to guess the mystery woman's identify, the truth of her writings and who her partners were.

The story had “definitely spread all over the hill and a lot of people are talking about it," said one Capitol Hill staffer. "There hasn't been this type of salacious gossip since that Vanity Fair story from a few years ago," referring to the magazine's expose on Capitol Hill sex scandals.

Dawson said, "I can't control what people read and don't read and what they don't gossip about."

Ana Marie Cox, who identifies herself as “the editor of Wonkette, a guide to DC politics and culture, sort of,” said she even is unsure of the validity of the blog.

"Some of the details seem suspicious. And I know that the content of the blog itself seems dubious to a lot of people: It's too scandalous to be true," she said. She added, however, it could be true because sexual scandal is nothing new to Washington.

"The other reason I'm inclined to believe her blog is basically factual, or at least no more fictional than anyone's diary, is that I'm not sure someone could create its tone of willful self-awareness out of thin air," she said.

"People are calling her the Paris Hilton of the Hill, but that's unfair and inaccurate," Cox said. "Washingtonienne can actually write . . . . A couple of editors have contacted me about being interested in her, and I have to say I think the appeal of this particular tell-all is that it wouldn't need a squadron of ghostwriters."

She added, "Really, one of the first things she should get with her six-figure book advance is some really good therapy."

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