David Vitter skates away!
By John Amato Friday May 09, 2008 1:30pmDavid Vitter will not be investigated.
The Senate Ethics Committee has decided not to investigate Louisiana Senator David Vitter.
The Republican was linked to an elite Washington prostitution ring owned by Deborah Jean Palfrey. Palfrey committed suicide May 1st, two weeks after being convicted of racketeering and money laundering.
The bipartisan ethics panel says it decided against a probe because the conduct occurred before Vitter became a senator. And it says it didn't result in any criminal charges or involve the improper use of his public office or status.
He gets off on a technicality. Wow, another shocker. CREW sums it up nicely:
“The Senate Ethics Committee has once again done what it does best: nothing.
I wonder if the Senate Republicans gave him another standing ovation? That might be something. And poor Mr. Super Tuber just can't get no respect from his buddies.
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They oughta just send the bastard to be in church with Pastor Ted. They'd have a lot to talk about and it'd serrve them right.
Senate ethics.
LOL!!! Amusing.
Right, but Bill Clinton deserved to be impeached for having a consensual affair.
Republicans are vile hypocrites, and I look forward to sending them to the dustbin in 2009.
I wonder how much bribe money passed hands on this.
Republicans aren't the only ones who celebrate their criminals. Ted Kennedy killed someone through his own drunken negligence and got away with it. Senator Byrd was a bigwig (big sheet?) in the KKK.
Both sides of the aisle rarely condemn their own...they just like to condemn others for not condemning their own (ex. Rev Wright).
RHM
This is silly. None of the republicans are ever held responsible.
Shameful.
Unfortunately this should come as no surprise, since the Democrats have not even impeached perhaps the most corrupt administration in this country's history. Just another example of our spineless and pusillanimous Congress at work.
ok, i have to ask, as I don't know much about this situation...but all the transgressions took place before he was in office? If that is true, it would make sense to do nothing...otherwise, Obama would be 'investigated' for doing blow when he was a kid.....unless I'm missing something?
Susan @ 6:
It amazes me that anyone actually believes justice will be served. BushCo will walk away free and no, they won't have to run to a non-extradition-treaty country. They'll be perfectly safe right here in the USA living out their days in luxury.
If Abu Graihb (sp?) is any indication, the only one who will actually serve time for Bush's crimes will be the White House dishwasher and maybe a maid or two.
That said, Vitter's is simply a case of hypocrisy. Having sex with a prostitute is a pretty stupid reason to put someone in jail.
Wasn't the entire special prosecutor investigating president Bill Clinton for actions that occured before he took office? The Paula Jones accusations were all before he was President and it was those accusations and investigation which led to his testimony regarding Monica.
Vitter gets away scot free, and the DC Madam ends up committing "suicide"...
is anyone shocked?
Chris from Maine @ 12:
It was Clinton,s fault
Michael @ 11:
Remind me please, How did the Whitewater investigation turn out? Or Paula Jones ? Or Vince Foster ?
If I recall correctly, all of those investigations petered out(pardon the pun).
Yet they kept the special prosecutor in place even when those investigation came up empty.
And yet, they were allowed to remain seated, until they finally found something 6.5 years into it.
I don't know about you, but something stinks there.
CafeenMan @ 10:
Silly but even Socrates followed the law of the land...
If the law is bad, get it changed but the real problem in the US seems to be that there is no rule of law for rep goverment officials...
mudshark @ 13:
Really? I thought it was Ted Kennedy's fault...
There must be a democrat that can be blamed some where because the republicans never do anything wrong.
Well heck my fellow plebneestas, if they started censuring every Republican who had/has a sex scandal there wouldn't be anybody left to care about steroids in baseball.
let me ask you people qui are a bit older than me. Has it always been like this? It seems as if the biggest, partisan idiots are running the country. Im quickly losing my faith in humanity as a whole.
Palfrey comitted suicide. Yea - right. She was wacked by BushCo.
John L. Ferri @ 19:
I don't know if you're right or wrong about that.
But one thing I do know, is that she knew too much. She had to .
he probably thanked his shit-head god when she was murdered.
John .. change
The Senate Ethics Committee has decided not to investigate Louisiana Senator David Vitter.
... to
The Senate Ethics Committee has decided to protect Louisiana Senator David Vitter.
You know its the truth ... dont give them a pass they way they are giving Vitter a pass. They deserve to be known by their actions.
check out the date on this bbc article about palfrey.
Why do the NeoCon bring up past events that the Democrats shamefully skated through?
They know this is god awful and they know it. They have no defense. Suicide? My ass.
one year and a day before she died.
doesn't prove anything, but it kind of reminds me of how king was killed a year after his 'nam speech.
The "ethics committee" is an absolute joke. Let the foxes investigate the problems in the hen house.
Vitter is a piece of trash and needs to be treated as such. Those on the committee need to be treated in the same way.
Why does everyone think the DC Madame committed suiced after she shouted at the top of her lungs to anyone who would listen that she would not?
If you want to investigate, investigate what the hell Cheney had to do with her "suicide."
"The Senate Ethics Committee has decided not to investigate Louisiana Senator David Vitter."
They're probably afraid of what they'll find in his diaper.
Paul @ 18:
remember, that is what they *want* you to do. they want you to throw up your hands and disengage...then they win. I know it's frustrating as hell, but stick with it and remain informed. they depend on the ignorance of the public...
Whether Palfrey killed herself or was killed (both seem equally probable to me) the double standard our society applies to the "crime" of prostitution isn't that far removed from the "honor killings" in fundamentalist Islamic societies.
It's all the woman's fault - stone her, imprison her.
Prostitution should be legalized.
So... what exactly have we gained since the 2006 elections? The OTHER set of rich elitist snobs that don't give a rat's ass about the working class?
You know, this isn't really funny because of how it points out just how much of a joke our government has turned into, but look at what this basically says:
You get a goddamn background check if you apply to McDonalds, you (most likely) won't get a job working at a CAR WASH if you have a misdemeanor arrest for possession of Marijuana, and i know for damn sure that wherever you work, chances are if you're being investigated in a high profile profile prostitution scandal covered in the national media - then you're probably left with the words "don't let the door hit ya' where the good lord split ya'"
Not in the United States Senate though - but it's ok because god forgave him.
I wonder if god forgave Harry Whittington for getting shot in the face.
They keep arresting the wrong prostitutes in Washington.
I remember when the Clinton/Monica story broke and Mrs. Vitter said that if her husband ever did something like that she would pull a Lorena Bobbit on him. She didn't, of course, and stayed with him because she's a prostitute too and wouldn't give up the perks. These people are so disgusting.
No one should ever even use the word ethics when talking about the Congress unless they are talking about the "lack of".
Oh, and David Vitter is so stupid that he found a prostitute back home in New Orleans with the same name as his wife, Wendy. Okay, maybe that was smarter than I'm giving him credit for.
MountainMan23 @ 29:
The United States is not exactly what I would consider "enlightened" on gender and sexual matters....
FYI the Senate Ethic's committee is:
Democrats
Barbara Boxer, California, Chairman
Mark Pryor, Arkansas
Ken Salazar, Colorado
Republicans
John Cornyn, Texas, Vice Chairman
Pat Roberts, Kansas
Johnny Isakson, Georgia
http://ethics.senate.gov/
You should actually read the letter it's actually scathingly funny... :)
http://ethics.senate.gov/downloads/pdffiles/vitter_050808.pdf
Mark Pryor and Ken Salazar are both DINO's. Pryor's dad was a good Democrat, a little conservative but this is Arkansas. Mark Pryor is a flaming right-winger who just calls himself a Democrat because of his family.
So, there is really only one Democrat on the Ethics committee. Nice!
I really don't care if there is an investigation. Vitter admitted using the services of Paltry and others. That admission should be enough to demand his resignation. Since he confessed, who needs an investigation. Prostitution is not a victumless crime as evidenced by two suicides in the Paltry group. If there is any standard of decency in the U.S. Senate, then surely this kind of conduct violates that standard and he should be removed. Senators love to spew high and mighty morality when they are condemning others, they need to be held to a standard ofdecent behavior. Prostitution, adultry and lying, betray their office by any standard.
As reich-winger after reich-winger after reich-winger is exposed as a criminal and a fraud, all the water carriers can do is keep bringing up Kennedy over and over. That just proves our point that the reich-wing GOPigs are indeed the party of criminals; you can't bring up anything relevant to defend your scum.
Different Anonymous @ 17:
Or make flag-burning illegal.
The dimwit even said he was responsible, and yet , they still let him off.
I think Bluesage is on to something there.
xargaw @ 38:
lets not moralize about this...prostitution is indeed a victimless crime, as long as there isnt a pimp involved and both parties are of consensual age.
we live in one of the most hypocritical societies in the history of the world
and this is due in part of our puritan founders
i just dont get how nevada is able to legalize and regulate prostitution, but no other state has figured that one out yet
if both drugs and prostitution were legalized, the tax base would be broadened, more money could be put into education and health care, and away from law enforcement and the penal system, and we would have a healthier society...prohibition doesnt work
That twit better resign.
Have you seen his wife, she looks like she will beat the holy livin crap out of him.
After he resigns.
Piiiffft...who would of guessed?!
"I wonder if the Senate Republicans gave him another standing ovation?"
Paraphrasing as Elvira put it in Elvira Mistress of the Dark, "They gave him a standing ovulation."
I don't really blame them. When I hear "adult diaper" I'd as soon rather not investigate further myself.
"Senate ethics" is an oxymoron.
Michael @ 11:
Ding ding ding! You are correct!
that whole thing stunk like hell when abc suddenly announced that there wasn't a newsworthy story. suicide??????????????
the whole thing was a massive cover up.
we won't find it out till after the election just my prediction but this smells like fish.
bullfrog @ 23:
That was a year ago - before her trial and subsequent conviction.
42 uncle joe hussein mccarthy
Although Puritans were involved in founding our country, particularly in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, others were too.
Catholics settled Maryland, hence it's name, after the Virgin.
In fact, the Virginia settlement was settled 60 years earlier than Massachusetts by those seeking wealth. But starting with the Reconstruction era teaching about them was minimized to maximize the Puritans in Massachusetts, and it's probably no coincidence that Thanksgiving was involved in pushing that. The holiday was ostensibly to celebrate the end of the war, but got heavily merged with promoting the Puritans.
If anything, our country was settled by rank-and-file Anglicans (Church of England), and Presbyterians (Church of Scotland), until other nationalities started coming over with their religions like the Jews from Central Europe, and Roman Catholic Germans.
Presbyterians at the time were heavily into the Calvinist doctrine of John Calvin which was very strict, and in areas like Texas and throughout the Southwest it was Presbyterians that probably lent the moralist bent. That is until the Methodist and Baptists came inito the area, who were originally very anti-slavery, but then split into pro-slavery/anti-slavery movements. What we call the Southern Baptist church were pro-slavery.
Actually there was also a steady traffic of Jews moving into the Southwest but this caused them to have something of a split, between Reform Jews who wanted to conform more, and Orthodox Jews who wanted to maintain their own identities, and Conservative Jews who tried to blend them in a Semitic version of thesis/antithesis/synthesis. Britain was going through much the same thing with their Low Church that was more fundamentalist, High Church which was more ritualistic and Apostolic, and Broad Church which attempted to blend them. They also were gradually giving their dissenters more rights. Disreali was the first Jewish Prime Minister, but we have yet to have anyone but Christians as presidents, although some probably nominally so.
Spud @ 49:
I understand so does feminine genitalia
Not that I would know first-hand.
ysbadden--
im not going to call you an idiot but maryland was named after the wife if the king of england.
you give the internet a bad name by just writing shit that you pull out of your ass
I guess the Senate will all wear diapers in homage.
amen to that
Spud @ 53:
I realize that after I submitted it. Some sites have features that can allow one to pull back a comment after submitting it.
I was criss-crossing two lines of thought. Maryland was settled by Catholics and the name chosen was probably because of both reasons, the one I gave and the one you gave which was a fortuitous coincidence. Virginia, was named after the Virgin Queen Elizabeth I, who as I understand it was no virgin at all.
ysbaddaden @ 51:
Well, let's be fair, now. The British moved their religious nuts here.
But Britain had the examples of what happened with the Church like the Invesiture Controversy and then the revolving-door faith days of Henry VIII to after James I.
America has not been on the receiving end of religious strife to the same extent Europe has. We may end up worse off, because of it.
There seems to be a weird disconnect I'm finding in some of Maryland's history. It was formally settled during the reign of King James II, who's wife's name was Anne Hyde daughter of Charles II's chief minister, Edward Hyde.
However, King James II, second wife was an Italian princess named Mary of Modena who he married in 1673 which is 41 years after the founding of Maryland in 1632.
However, the earlier King Charles II was married to Catherine of Brananza, they married in 1662. However, Charles II mother's name was Henrietta Maria of France, so it is possible the state could've been named in her honor.
Funny coincidence was Edward Hyde was the name of who Dr. Jekyll turned into.
I've also heard rumors that the man in charge of Queen Elizabeth I protection was James Bond, but I haven't been able to confirm this.
ysbaddaden @ 58:
In the revolving-door-faith period (as I've dubbed it) of England's history, there were too many Marys and Henrys involved for the sanity of anyone decent. Ironic, though, that the revolving-door-faith period led to James of Scotland persecuting both Catholics and the more radical Reformers in the Anglican church, ultimately prompting some of them to try to leave, thereby opening one chapter of American history.
Virginia, OTOH, was undoubtedly theocratic as well, a bastion of Anglicanism against the heretics to the north. Christians can't agree on what a true Christian is, and we have a nasty tendency even today to have fratricidal conflicts because of it (some of that FLDS stuff is undoubtedly motivated by the same thing that led to the Puritans leaving.)
He may not have been a Senator but he was using the service as a Congressman.
Now Wendy Cortez was a local girl here in New Orleans and old news
But that is the incident he is owning up to.
He wasn't securing Cortez's service throught the DC madame. There is another or others in DC he was seeing.
and that has not been brought out.
I think being that he has TOP secret clearance he should be investigated as to the possibility of him leaking state secrets
and being subjected to blackmail by foreign nationals.
57 General_Rennenkampf
The 11th century Investiture Controversy was similar in nature to the 17th century controversy over who would appoint Scottish bishops, those clergy in London, or those in Scotland.
TCB @ 61:
Unfortunately, for a bunch of apes like humans, the tendency of powerful males (Vitter's got more clout than most heteros) to claim a portion of the reproductive pie (and for closeted gays and bisexuals, the male pond) remains despite 2,000 years of sex-is-bad-for-you-you-will-burn indoctrination. Then again, Vitter's just a kook anyhow, so I won't shed a tear when he leaves the Senatorial office of my state.
I trust him as much as Jindal...
Homer Simpson beat David Vitter to it, wearing a diaper in a public park and talking like a baby, "Homer made a boom-boom."
ysbaddaden @ 62:
Yeah, true. But one thing people forget about the British is that before the Act of Union, those fellas fought war after war with each other, the Welsh against the English, the English against the Scots and the Welsh, and the Scots against the English. England and Japan are not very different in the broad patterns of their history. And we all know what the Empire of Japan did, and we kid ourselves into pretending that the Mother Country was any nicer.
The British have been a ruthless lot, and they used faith as the unifying factor. After Henry VIII started Protestantism rolling...
Guy Fawkes really f'ed the British Catholics.
Another interesting feature is the desire for power, for sex, and presumably even religion (a god is a particularly strong alpha figure) is seated in what's called our reptillian brain, an earlier version of what we have now.
So those who seek power may be lusty sorts, or have all kinds of divine or semi-divine aspirations, either as a god or the spokesman of the gods.
Bill Clinton was the satyrmaniac, and a lot of republicans deamaniacs.
Vitter was more like Clinton, but more bizarre, Freud would undoubtedly call it a form of anal fixation.
"The Republican was linked to an elite Washington prostitution ring owned by Deborah Jean Palfrey.
Palfrey committed suicidewas violently murdered by the CIA on May 1st, two weeks after being convicted of racketeering and money laundering."ysbaddaden @ 66:
Naw, just watch your average chimpanzees in zoos (the wild would be better, but most Americans have neither the clout, money, nor patience to build up trust with chimps enough to do that). That says all you need about what humans are like. Chimps are humans with thicker hair and no ability to speak. And if you know anything about how one chimp group treats another....
9 Kiva Says: ok, i have to ask, as I don’t know much about this situation…but all the transgressions took place before he was in office? If that is true, it would make sense to do nothing…otherwise, Obama would be ‘investigated’ for doing blow when he was a kid…..unless I’m missing something?
========================
Can you arrest someone for saying they did blow, a long time ago?? I thought not.
65 General_Rennenkampf
Although Henry VIII, got the ball rolling for Protestantism in England by refounding the Church of England (1536?), it really wasn't clearly Protestant since Henry VIII earlier fought against reformers in the Church who were in the mold of John Wycliff. But with his son Edward VI approval of a new Book of Common Prayer in 1649 with Thomas Kramner.
Another interesting feature is when an earlier son of King Henry VIII died in 1502, of an unknown disease, presumably tuberculosis, he was the last prince expected to inherit the throne through primogeniture named Arthur. Arthur is often a middle name of the one first in line of succession, but never again the first. Although not a good source, according to People Magazine, Prince Charles stirred a fuss in his family when Diana was expectinig William, by stating a desire that he be named Arthur.
I forgot to mention that Henry VIII was refounding the Church of England, not founding it. This was presumably much like the church under King Harold, that was squashed under the mailed boots of the Roman Catholic Norman invaders.
I understand that in many early Church Councils English bishops would insist on speaking before the Roman bishops, because they used Joseph of Arimathea to claim they were an older Church than Rome, which converted roughly around the 4th century.
I'm gone now, I gotta a headache, and want to read my new Simpsons comic book.
ysbaddaden @ 70:
Henry VIII was Protestant, all right. Wycliff-type radical reformers were a challenge to royal authority, something that in pre-Cromwellian times was still a bit nonkosher. Henry VIII expected absolute obedience, and when the Pope (owing to a familial relationship with Henry VIII's wife) refused to grant him a divorce, he left the Catholic Church to get a son.
Interesting fellow, that Henry.
The perfect place for vitter would be the shitter!
That is where the republican party headquarters is located.
jnratliff @ 74:
Considering his pecadillioes...
I've never heard of a family-values type in the news who didn't have one, come to think of it.
60 General_Rennenkampf Says: ysbaddaden @ 58:
"Christians can’t agree on what a true Christian is, and we have a nasty tendency even today to have fratricidal conflicts because of it..."
==============================
Yet it seems a big stretch, for the powers that be in Washington, that a similiar situation may exist in the Muslim world, before they invaded Iraq. Oh right, bu$h hadn't heard of Sunni and Shia, or sects therein, till after. Oops.
And right, to all of you (above), America was settled by the LOONIES, Great Britain drove out (cuz they were big-time fucked in the head).
73 General_Rennenkampf
However, you got to remember having a son and successor wasn't just a means of familial success, but also succession.
If Henry had no male heir the result probably would be rival claimants and possibly Civil War. Queen Elizabeth changed all that by reigning as sole monarch on her own, but between her and Bloody Mary they ravaged the countryside in strike and counter-strikes in an all but formal Civil War until Elizabeth ordered the beheading of her half-sister, at which point she really became both bloody and half.
We are all animals; beasts. Don't forget it. So we put on clothes and eat politely with utensils, big deal. Watch what happens if we have to struggle for food. Men who lust for power can not divorce themselves from their primal instincts. Kill or be killed.
Slipper as shit in a diaper that Vitter.
I like the defense he wasn't a senator then. How do you explain Wide Stance Craig not resigning then?
We need an oversight group outside the influence of these crooks. Them policing themselves is laughable.
*
bitter Edwin Hussein @ 69:
Give these Rethugs four more years and another Supreme Court justice and it soon will be possible.
Hell, at the rate we're losing freedoms, soon, even THINKING about getting high will become a crime.
RHM @ 5:
Pickles killed her ex-boyfriend with her car. We'll see who the real criminals are when he and his cabinet are tried for international war crimes.
Wrong the dems condemn there own like Jefferson and the $80,000. The rethuglicans judge others, but do what they condemn. Bryd faced his past, by the rethuglicans loved Throm BECAUSE he was a racist scumbag who is rotting in hell.
To paraphrase Ian Andersen (badly): "Skating away, on the slim vice of a dead(ed) lay."
RHM @ 5:
ah, a hannity listener
kennedy is reelected by his state....but you want us to continously condemn him for a 40 year old crime?? look, it ruined his chances of ever becoming prez...i think thats enuf
as for byrd...how many times does a man have to apologize for his past...a past he long ago threw away and has shown by action and deed, that he no longer holds by those views
look, the pope was a nazi youth...wanna condemn him over and over too??
the mayor of nyc lost his job and career cuz he was doing high priced hookers...you didnt see too many dems running to his aid...
no sir
but vitter gets a pass
after the noxin impeachment buildup, the Dems decided that they would not impugn or impeach anyone if the repugs agreed not to impeach anyone. the repugs broke the agreement with Bill Clinton and the dems remain cowards under the threat that the repugs will be in power again one day.
ysbaddaden @ 77:
bitter Edwin Hussein @ 76:
Bitter Edwin Hussein: Anybody in his right mind would not have deposed Saddam. A) It's no more up to the United States to depose Saddam than it was to the UK to try to devastate the Afghanistan region and Persia when trying to top the Tsarists. B) The record of what happens when apartheid regimes are removed by outside forces, and often by inside forces, is legion. The best examples of that are Western, owing to the fact that the concept of ethnicity is largely our own mental virus we've spread to the rest of the world.
Ysbadden: While changing allegiance in England from Protestant, to Catholic, to Protestant, to Catholic, to Protestants that grew increasingly authoritarian in the fashion associated more with 20th Century Nazism and Stalininsm, to Oliver Cromwell, arguably the British Hitler, to James II, the last Catholic.
We got the religious crazies displaced by all of them. It's interesting to note that when Ollie Cromwell was in power, a near-schism occurred in the early American colonies between Virginia and the New Englanders. The Southerners supported the King, the Northerners the dictator. Had the two regions been neighbors, a civil war would have been fought between them.
uncle joe hussein mccarthy @ 84:
About Benedict XVI, to be fair to him, not joining the Hitlerjungend was a very bad idea under the Hitler regime. Even so, that Vitter gets a pass isn't suprising. Probably every Senator got some, and knowing the GOP, a shitload (OMG, totally not intended) of dirty laundry will start coming out.
But the DC Madam pays with her life. What can I say?
The DC Madam is dead and the investigation was dropped. It kinda worked out for "Huggies" didn't it?
Vitter's career is toast anywise. He won't get re-elected.