Be heard on the issues that matter most to you!
Once again illustrating the "Do as I say, not as I do" nature of medieval fundy morality, it seems David Vitter, Republican Senator from Louisiana has gotten caught with his hand in the panty jar. Touting his misogyny in a section of his official website entitled "Life & Values", he spends a bit of web estate telling us how he knows what's best for us regarding our options in the case of an unwanted pregnancy: "As a strong believer in the dignity and sanctity of all human life, I stand with many other Louisianans in defense of those who cannot defend themselves. Together, we work daily to turn the tide toward respecting, protecting, and dignifying innocent human life.
"To this end, I have supported all pro-life measures before Congress, including:
- Supporting an immediate ban on partial birth abortions.
- Expanding tax credits and other support for adoption.
- Authoring legislation that would absolutely prohibit taxpayer funding to private providers of abortion services.
- Supporting a full ban on human cloning.
- Authoring legislation to codify safety measures designed to protect the health of women who use RU-486, responding to the misguided and politicized approval of the drug.
- Participating in National Adoption Awareness Month.
- Supporting legislation requiring that pregnant mothers be provided information on their unborn child's ability to experience pain 20 weeks after fertilization.
- Supporting legislation prohibiting the transportation of a minor across state lines for the purpose of obtaining an abortion."
However, in his defense, he does have a section of his website devoted to focusing "on the views and needs of women and families".
With a few links thrown in haphazardly at the end, the entire breadth of his concern for what women think seems to consist of the following:
My Women's Leadership Forum is designed to help me focus on the views and needs of women and families.
Every year we meet as a group to discuss issues important to women and families across Louisiana. These meetings have produced an ongoing dialogue about the initiaives you want me to address in the Senate as well as specific work we can pursue together in the community.
Your input on education, health care, and other key issues for our families has been crucial to my work in the Senate, and I want to continue our dialogue - it's crucial for me to hear your view on issues. I have designated two staff members to serve as my liasions to our Women's Leadership Forum. Nicole Hebert and Polly Koury in my Lafayette office can be reached at (337) 262-6898 or feel free to email me. I look forward to hearing from you.Wow. Once every year? Holy crap, that's some kind of dedication to our views and needs, there Senator. Thanks. I guess Senator Vitter needed to get some first hand research done when he visited Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so called "DC Madam". Via CNN:
Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana, 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.But of course, that was all in the past, and he's apologized to God, and to his wife, and now he's sorry.
"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."
Somehow I have trouble taking the apology at face value. If you were so repentant Senator, why did you not disclose this information before now? You might have mentioned it while you were in the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2004. You could have come forward in the beginning of the investigation of Ms. Palfrey. Surely this information may have been of interest to the righteous and morally superior constituents to whom you pander. Or did it just slip your mind over the course of the five elections you've won over the past eight years?
The way this has played out Senator, it sure seems like you're only sorry you got caught. It makes you look like a hypocrite for your attempts to legislate the religious beliefs of the extreme right wing Christian Fundamentalists.
Just so y'know.
Kisses,
JanieBelle
RC McCloud also writes at The Safe Word
Through it all, Mr. Vitter’s consistent themes have been family values, morality and ethics — his own, in contrast to what he has depicted as deficiencies in the local political culture. In Louisiana, where the well-documented infidelities of the onetime governor Edwin W. Edwards were all but a political asset, Mr. Vitter could easily survive any disclosure about adultery. Insincerity, however, is another matter.
If we assert that because something is sexual or personal that it cannot also be political, we deny the public a chance to know the sincerity of the people they elect to make laws that will restrict or expand their freedoms.
How Vitter and his family cope with his behavior is a personal matter. Whether Vitter, or any lawmaker, is willing to live by the laws he advocates? That is absolutely a public matter!
...because public space really matters!
Elizabeth
Indeed RC. I seriously doubt this is the only or even remotely the highest ranking fundy on the list.
Well said, Elizabeth.
This wouldn't even be news except for the hypocrisy. But if the politician is going to make it his business to enforce his religious superstitions about sex and morality on the rest of us, then it goes without saying that he has made his own sex life our business.
On to the new details...
Another former madam on Tuesday said Vitter had also used her service.
"David Vitter has visited with my girls, and he has to be one of the nicest men and most honorable men I have ever met," Jeanette Maier, known as the Canal Street madam of New Orleans, told CNN affiliate WDSU.
Maier's business, the Canal Street Brothel, was shut down by federal indictments in 2002 and Maier took a plea deal.
Maier's attorney, Vinnie Mosca, told WDSU that he has "absolutely no recollection of David Vitter's name ever appearing on any document, book, or list, or having any association with the Canal Street Brothel or Jeanette."
Mosca also told WDSU that "Miss Maier misspoke," but later told CNN that he was referring to a claim that Vitter's name appears in Maier's "black book."
Vitter is the first lawmaker known to be linked to Palfrey's business, though State Department official Randall Tobias -- who promoted abstinence education as head of the Bush administration's effort to curb the spread of AIDS -- resigned in May after confirming he patronized Palfrey's business.And just to add insult to injury, it turns out that Larry Flint (yes, the Larry Flint) may have been the one responsible for Vitter's getting busted. That's gotta sting.
Kisses,
JanieBelle
In Wednesday’s press conference, Flynt said he has also located five prostitutes in Louisiana who also allege that they have had sexual contact with Vitter.
“You can’t have a guy with four, five mistresses and at the same time attacking any similarity of gay rights and speaking about the sanctity of marriage, and abstinence programs, and voting the conservative line all the way down,” Flynt said.
“I don’t want a man like that legislating for me, especially in the areas of morality,” he added.
Vitter heavily campaigned on social values in his 2004 Senate race and was one of the top backers of a failed constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage."
Kisses,
JanieBelle
