Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) was Capitol Hill’s invisible man yesterday, lying low even as his ties to the notorious “D.C. Madam” threatened to become a political crisis for the conservative lawmaker.
Vitter acknowledged late Monday that he had contacted the high-end escort service of Deborah Jeane Palfrey before his 2004 Senate campaign. But Vitter’s apology hardly quelled the controversy, prompting Hustler publisher Larry Flynt to claim credit for unmasking Vitter as part of his million-dollar search for congressional sex scandals.
Normally a fixture at the GOP’s weekly policy lunch, Vitter was nowhere to be found yesterday, and most sources believed the freshman senator remained in Louisiana to avoid the press onslaught. Vitter’s office did not return repeated calls for comment on his presence in Palfrey’s phone records, which were publicly released last Thursday.
Meanwhile, Flynt touted the conservative’s confession in a statement that claimed his investigators were the first to link Vitter to Palfrey. Flynt said through his agent that Hustler contacted Vitter for a response Monday at 5 p.m., only to see the senator’s office release a statement to the Associated Press (AP) “in an attempt to get ahead of the story.”
Playing up Vitter’s strong defense of anti-gay marriage legislation, Flynt crowed that his “ongoing investigation into the dirty secrets of prominent elected officials has exposed another hypocrite.”
Palfrey’s attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, partially confirmed Flynt’s account in an interview. Sibley said a reporter, whom he declined to name, found Vitter’s number in the records and called his office on Monday.
“They went into hibernation mode, put spin together and sent a statement to the AP,” Sibley said. “It wasn’t the gentleman’s way to handle the agreement.”
In an ironic twist, Flynt’s previous search for Capitol Hill sex scandals led to infidelity revelations in 1998 that unseated former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), then in line to become Speaker. Livingston’s successor was Vitter, who later became Lousiana’s first Republican senator since Reconstruction.
Senate Republicans defended Vitter yesterday, describing the affair as a personal matter and predicting no fallout for a GOP badly wounded by the sexual dalliances and the resignation of former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.).
“David has already resolved this with his family and taken responsibility for it,” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said. “I’m sure if there are other things he’ll have to deal with, he’ll deal with them.”
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said the confession “is certainly a regrettable incident, but the senator confronted it head on.”
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) was more to the point. “Have you ever done anything wrong?” he asked The Hill. “So have I.”
The flap is unlikely to become fodder for either party as the Senate continues an all-consuming Iraq debate, according to Republican and Democratic aides. One Republican aide observed that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) would be reluctant to address Vitter’s predicament because, like the Scooter Libby prison commutation, the issue harkens unfavorably back to her husband’s administration.
Yet one Democratic aide countered with memories of Livingston and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), also accused of infidelity: “Another Southern conservative caught with his pants down spins itself.”
At the height of President Clinton’s impeachment controversy, Vitter said that Livingston’s resignation was “a very powerful argument that Clinton should resign as well and move beyond this mess,” according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The most immediate campaign consequences came not for Vitter, who is up for reelection in 2010, but for GOP presidential front-runner Rudy Giuliani. Vitter’s endorsement of the ex-New York City mayor was intended to lend Giuliani conservative heft, but the Louisianan forced his candidate to dodge scandal yesterday in New Hampshire.
In media reports yesterday, Giuliani told reporters that of all the staffers working for him, “some of them had issues, some of them had problems, [but] the vast majority of them were outstanding people.”
Giuliani said no decision has been made as to whether Vitter would continue as his Southern regional chairman.
Vitter’s fellow Pelican State senator, Mary Landrieu (D), declined to address the affair and said she had not spoken to Vitter but expects to do so in coming days. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D), who weathered harsh criticism from the national GOP for her response after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, said she hoped the illicit news would not hurt federal officials’ support of hurricane recovery.
Vitter has faced allegations of involvement with prostitutes before, but had said such charges were false and politically motivated attacks.
In Louisiana yesterday, at least two state Republicans — one a columnist and statehouse candidate and the other a state party official and Vitter rival — were claiming vindication after Vitter’s admission.
In 2002, state GOP official Vincent Bruno charged on talk radio that Vitter had engaged in an extramarital affair.
Bruno told Christopher Tidmore, a political columnist for The Louisiana Weekly and a candidate for the state legislature, that Vitter had consorted for 11 months with a New Orleans prostitute who went by the name Wendy Cortez.
Tidmore told The Hill that other Republicans were aware of the alleged affair, adding that former Gov. Mike Foster (R) had used the information to dissuade Vitter from running for governor in 2001. At the time, Vitter said marital issues kept him from running.
After the allegations surfaced, Vitter attacked Tidmore and Bruno for engaging in “crass Louisiana politics,” adding that the charges were “completely untrue” and “obviously politically motivated.”
Tidmore, who has reported on the story for almost five years, insisted he has no “political ax to grind” with Vitter.
Bruno told The Hill yesterday that Vitter should follow Livingston’s lead and resign for the good of the state party, adding that he thinks more details or more affairs could come to light. He noted that Republican candidates are poised to unseat Blanco this year and mount a strong challenge against Landrieu next year.
“It’s going to be devastating if it comes out,” Bruno said. “He’s got a real problem, and he needs to tend to it. And it doesn’t need to be in the public eye when he does if he cares about his family.”
While talking to The Hill on the phone, Bruno took another call, which he said was from another state party official telling him not to talk to reporters about Vitter.
The state party yesterday referred press calls to Vitter’s Senate office.
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