Posted on 07/09/2007 8:55:07 PM PDT by freespirited
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) acknowledged Monday night that his number appears on telephone records of the alleged D.C. Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, and issued an apology.
“This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible,” Vitter said in a statement issued by his office.
“Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling,'' he added. "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.”
Vitter did not disclose exactly when the incidents took place, but said it was before he ran for the Senate in 2004.
Vitter, 46, then became Louisiana’s first Republican senator since the end of Reconstruction and has built a reputation as a solid conservative, opposing abortion rights, same-sex marriage and gun control. Last month, he took a leading role in efforts to kill the comprehensive immigration overhaul bill.
A Harvard graduate and former Rhodes Scholar, Vitter was elected to the House in 1999, filling the seat vacated by Rep. Bob Livingston, who was headed toward the House speakership in 1998 when he was forced to reveal his marital infidelities.
In 2000, Vitter was included in a Newhouse News Service story about the strain of congressional careers on families.
His wife, Wendy, was asked by the Newhouse News reporter: If her husband were as unfaithful as Livingston or former President Bill Clinton, would she be as forgiving as Hillary Rodham Clinton?
“I’m a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary,” Wendy Vitter told Newhouse News. “If he does something like that, I’m walking away with one thing, and it’s not alimony, trust me.”
“I think fear is a very good motivating factor in a marriage,” she added. “Don’t put fear down.”
Vitter’s revelation Monday comes a month after Hustler magazine Publisher Larry Flynt offered $1 million for information about illicit sexual relations with members of Congress. Flynt made a same pitch in October 1998, playing a role in Livingstons outing.
Palfrey posted the complete phone records of her client list on the Internet Monday night. The list for Pamela Martin and Associates dates back to 1994.
She is accused of running a prostitution ring catering to Washington’s elite. She faces federal racketeering and conspiracy charges based on allegations that she earned $2 million operating a prostitution service from 1993 to 2006.
Palfrey, however, has said that her company was legal operation that offered sexual fantasy services.
Her lawyer, Montgomery Sibley Blair, began distributing copies of the phone records to the media last week after a judge lifted an injunction that had previously prevented Palfrey from doing so.
Sure this equal low self esteem, lack courage, can not deal with the real world, sneaky etc
Ya know, those are excellent points!
LOL
Or maybe she decided to forgive her husband and try to work things out for the sake of their marriage and four children rather than simply throwing her hands up, giving in, and walking away.
He should have gotten a hot 25yo “intellectual valet” like Corzine.
Like Mark Foley?
Otherwise, she would not have said what she did.
He is an example of why the Republicans do not have much of a closet. When Republican leadership like Hastert mistakenly thinks he can keep such a fellow in the closet, he finds out the Dems and the press will conspire to clean the Republican closets 'round election time.
Out of the thousands of numbers posted from this book, the only one identified publicly so far is a Republican? Am I to beleive there will be no Democrats in the book?
I’m not holding my breath waiting to see any Democrat names listed in the lamestream media.
More to the point, clinton did it in the workplace with an employee, in OUR office, working for US.
Vitter did it on his own time, it was a private matter.
Why!!!
Nope, it's convenience. She likes the life of a Senator's wife, and does not want to give it up.
Otherwise, she would not have said what she did.
Except, he wasn't even a senator when she said that. It is entirely possible that, faced with the situation in real life, she takes a different opinion.
I for one, respect the woman for not just giving up on her marriage and honoring the vows that she took. Do you expect her to divorce her husband (and break up a family with four kids), just for the sake of being consistent with a statement that she made in response to a hypothetical question posed to her seven years ago?
‘Good for Vitter’? What would be really good is if he resigns right now, right away, the sooner the better. Most men go their entire lives working hard, telling the truth, raising their children, and staying faithful to their wives. If the GOP truly stands for traditional values, then those GOP politicians caught with their pants down need to get out of public life. Let him do what the rest of us do if we should fail our marriage and destroy our reputations: focus on rebuilding that marriage and re-earning that reputation. He has no standing to do either on the taxpayer’s dime.
Further, it isn’t good enough to point to a Democratic Party sociopath like Bill Clinton and decry MSM double standards. The moral bar should be higher for GOP politicians. Why? Because character does count: bad human beings make bad political decisions. Another thing, too: the way Vitter referred to his transgression as a ‘sin’. I’m pretty sure frequenting a prostitute is a crime, even in D.C. By calling it a ‘sin’, he immediately took his actions from the political to the personal, as if it is solely a private matter of no public consequence.
The Democrats are keen on ‘re-framing’ various issues, as if wrong can be made right by some semantic sleight-of-hand. Sorry, no. That cannot be our way, or there truly is no difference between us and those we oppose. Such an action by an elected official is tantamount to a freezer filled with cash. It’s corrupt, illegal, and equally worthy of contempt and reprobation.
I’m not throwing stones from some sanctimonious high ground here. I’m a recovering drunk and addict, and I’ve plumbed moral depths no one should ever experience, but evidently unlike Vitter and those like him, I’m willing to own up to those moral lapses without advice from a bevy of image consultants and spin doctors.
Geeze dude. Are we reading about the same guy? He owned up and takes full responsibility.
I guess you and others here would like to see him kneeling in a soccer stadium with an AK47 agains his head, even after you admit yourself that you've had your own moral lapses. The reformed drinkers / smokers / etc. are the most sanctimonious I guess, even when speaking of others who claim to be reformed themselves.
Everbody should get off their high horse and reconsider the quote from the Senator I pasted above. When have you ever heard a Dem talk like that? That alone paints a picture of sincerity.
Who cares what these people do anymore, in the end we are the ones getting screwed.
What evidence do you have that she stayed with him solely to climb the social ladder? You sound bitter. I've love to understnad what is driving your overly confident assessment of the woman's psychological mindset in choosing to stay with the guy. You have it all figured out, based on a 7 year old quote and a subsequent decision to remain with the guy.
The sanctimoniousness in this thread is amazing. What I'd give for a peak into your closet.
Exceptionally judgemental people, especially those who are wlling to lash out with minimal knowledge, are generally covering up for their own emotional baggage. What exactly are you projecting here?
But it is bigger than that. Vitter didn’t just fail his wife, he failed his constituents and his country. While supposedly representing their interests, he placed himself in a position where he could be compromised and blackmailed—presumably even by a hostile foreign power, but more likely by one of the many powerful interest groups active in the Beltway who make it their business to gather dirt on public officials. Knowledge is power, after all.
As an aside, emotional confessions occurring after being caught red-handed are usually not acts of conscience. The term we are looking for here, I think, is ‘damage control’.
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