LOUISIANA'S FAMILY VALUES SENATOR
SNARED IN DC PROSTITUTION SCANDAL

From the AP via the Huffington Post courtesy of AlterNet:

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., apologized Monday night for "a very serious sin in my past" after his telephone number appeared among those associated with an escort service operated by the so-called "D.C. Madam."

Vitter's spokesman, Joel Digrado, confirmed the statement in an e-mail sent to The Associated Press.

"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter said in the statement. "Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. 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."

And

Silas Lee, a political analyst and pollster in New Orleans, spoke Monday about the possible political impact on Vitter.

"In the short term, I think the issue will dominate the discourse for a few days and weeks, and though he's up for re-election in 2010, it should dissipate by then," Lee told WWL-TV in New Orleans.

"But for some of his very conservative constituents, it might not be as easy. In their mind and eyes, they may not be able to forgive. The majority may overlook it in time depending on his job performance and how sincere voters believe he wants them to forgive him."

Click here for the rest.

Conspicuously missing from this article is the ongoing story of how these powerful right wing social values people keep getting caught in flagrante, and how rank hypocrisy on sex and drugs seems increasingly to be as Republican as fundamentalist Christianity and patriotism. Jimmy Swaggart, Mark Foley, Ted Haggard, the list just keeps getting longer--some people have even quietly accused Tom DeLay of wild sexual escapades, what with his hot tub parties for lobbyists and all. It is utterly apparent to me that these relative few who have been caught red-handed are simply the tip of the iceberg. Like the suburban pro-life mother who is against abortion unless it's her teenage daughter who's pregnant, these "family values" hawks simply cannot live up to the harsh values they espouse. When will the news start covering that story? When will they stop treating the downfalls of these moralists as isolated incidents and start proclaiming as fact that human nature seeks pleasure?

My guess is that some of these neo-puritans are for real, but most of them either take their bogus positions because of political expediency, or want to be on the anti-sex side but just can't get there with their own personal lives. The bottom line is that most Americans aren't puritans. Most Americans like sex a lot and are pretty cool about the weird deviancies of others as long as it's consensual and nobody gets hurt.

The press needs to start calling bullshit on this anti-sex crap because, apparently, not even the moralists believe it.

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