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Hustler: We Outed Vitter
A press release just out from Kim Dower, Larry Flynt's spokesperson:
Larry Flynt's ongoing investigation into the dirty secrets of prominent elected officials has exposed another hypocrite. Monday's confession of marital infidelity by GOP right-wing marriage-protection advocate Senator David Vitter of Louisiana was the result of a multi-pronged investigation launched and run by Larry Flynt, publisher of HUSTLER Magazine.Within hours of a phone call from the offices of HUSTLER Magazine asking Vitter to comment on an article HUSTLER reporters were working on, Vitter ran to the Associated Press in an attempt to get ahead of the story.
As of 2 p.m. West Coast time on Monday, only Larry Flynt and the HUSTLER investigative team knew that Vitter¹s phone number appeared on the phone records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam. Within hours of obtaining the phone records, Flynt¹s team found what ABC News has so far been unable to ferret out. Flynt's team is currently continuing its investigation into improprieties by other high-ranking elected officials.
Senator Vitter, a churchgoing Catholic who is married and has four children, is seen as a hard-line right-winger. A staunch supporter of President Bush, Vitter has built his reputation on family-values platforms such as marriage protection and abstinence-only programs.
In opposition to same-sex marriage, Vitter recently stated, "Marriage is a core institution of societies throughout the world and throughout history. It's something that has provided permanence and stability for our very social structure."
Sen. Vitter announced his support for Rudy Giuliani in March and was tapped by the presidential nomination candidate to serve as his Southern Regional Chair.
Update: Here's more on this from Justin over at the Blotter.
Update: So maybe Vitter doesn't have such a blind faith in the Fourth Estate. Oh well.
Comments (65)
Jake wrote on July 10, 2007 1:49 PM:Rudy couldn't have picked a better guy.
Lee wrote on July 10, 2007 2:04 PM:Say what you want about him, but Larry Flynt continues to show he has more balls than the entire mainstream media put together! He sure ain't afraid to out hypocrites!
bobh wrote on July 10, 2007 2:09 PM:Score one for Hustler...again.
Anonymous wrote on July 10, 2007 2:10 PM:What about all the rumors about Cheney? How freaking awesome would that be if shown to be true!
tekel wrote on July 10, 2007 2:12 PM:Well, sure. Hookers are entirely consistent with marriage as the foundation of society. As long as they aren't GAY hookers. Cough Haggard cough Dobson cough Hastert cough Gannon cough Dick Cheney cough.
Legalize wrote on July 10, 2007 2:13 PM:Larry Flynt is a true patriot.
Robert wrote on July 10, 2007 2:14 PM:Larry FLynt and the Hustler investigative team: 1
dee illuminati wrote on July 10, 2007 2:24 PM:Brian Ross and the ABC News investigative team: 0
ABC news now claims they would have done their job if they had had the number, it makes me wonder who is the miscreant or 'evil doer' here, ABC or the DC Madame?
Did ABC have the number and did not report it or did the DC Madame hold the name?
Inquiring minds want to know.
And did the Senator pay for services that included battery powered toys in his rectum?
We need to know.
Mike Murphy wrote on July 10, 2007 2:25 PM:Brian Ross apparently only now how to use a prop phone and not a real one.
Anonymous wrote on July 10, 2007 2:28 PM:Brian Ross of ABC News:
rwojciak wrote on July 10, 2007 2:32 PM:"I'm not going to go into how many there are. We have found a lot in our reporting that we think is valid reporting."
Tpmmuckraker set up a great system for sifting through the Gonzalez-gate docs, why isn't the same formula being applied to the Madam's phone records? There's THOUSANDS of #'s. We need to dial them, and aggregate the responses.
Does anyone know how to access phone-number registry history? As in: Who was ###-###-#### registered to in 2002?
Anonymous wrote on July 10, 2007 2:33 PM:This the second Republican from Louisiana Larry Flynt has outed. Bob Livingston, a former Republican U.S. Representative from Louisiana, was chosen as Newt Gingrich's successor as Speaker of the House late in 1998, only to resign in the wake of his own sex scandal unearthed by Flynt.
Miggsathon wrote on July 10, 2007 2:43 PM:An anonymous poster at 2:10p writes: "What about all the rumors about Cheney? How freaking awesome would that be if shown to be true!"
What rumors? Somebody clue me in!
Jake wrote on July 10, 2007 2:49 PM:SENATOR DAVID VITTER, IT IS TIME TO RESIGN.
abc wrote on July 10, 2007 2:49 PM:I'm heartened that Sen. Vitter confessed his "sin" but does anyone want to point out that he probably also committed a, ahem, "crime".
Gert Bullish wrote on July 10, 2007 2:56 PM:Larry Flynt is a great guy, but most of those big shots won't ever be caught because many of them fly outside of the US to spend a weekend in the company of senoritas in escorts resorts where no one notices. And in any case, not all politicians are hipocrites. He should root out only the mean ones, that really makes us sick.
dee illuminati wrote on July 10, 2007 3:10 PM:Well maybe Senator Vitter and his wife Wendy can clarify if the payment was for sex as the FBI alledges, or sex in the manner of what do you mean by the meaning of sex, as an example maybe the escorts acts did not constitute full vaginal penetration but instead they engaged in sodomy. Maybe there was nothing more than a kleenex and a massage? Maybe as the Madame alledges he was dressed like the gimp in pulp fiction and just hung around awhile, 'to use a pun.'
Who knows?
But now that he admidts the involvement I would imagine that he is a material witness to the criminal case.
Maybe he can add insight and clarification as to what services were provided?
Yalary wrote on July 10, 2007 3:13 PM:The "mainstream" news is in the tank when it comes to right wing "christian" politicians who walk in goose step w/Bush/Cheney - - High School journalism students do more . . . . If not for the internet and Flynt there would be no reporting as to these incredible hypocrites on the "mainstream" news networks owned by the Weapons Manufacturers (mass murderers) and Wall Street thugs . . . .
Nancy Irving wrote on July 10, 2007 3:15 PM:God bless Larry Flynt.
POed Lib wrote on July 10, 2007 3:19 PM:Brown Sugar, how come you dance so good.....
Brown Sugar, just like a black girl should...
Little hint of a dusky honey in this story, seems to me.
nisleib wrote on July 10, 2007 3:37 PM:I would love it if Flynt got Gannon to spill the beans. Can you imaigine what Gannon knows? He must have been servicing someone. Who? Rove? Mehlman? Bush!?!
Ah, the mind boggles.
Jake wrote on July 10, 2007 3:47 PM:He's more concerned with a Constitutional Amendment to protect his "sacred institution of marriage" (GAG!) than in helping the displaced hurricane victims in his home state.
RESIGN, YOU LOSER!
eye-of-horus wrote on July 10, 2007 3:55 PM:Good job Sen. Vitter.
Keep it up!
Rodney Lamprey, jr. wrote on July 10, 2007 3:58 PM:A prostitution scandal... The only only kind of National/Political/Crime news worthy of Mainstream Media.
Henk wrote on July 10, 2007 4:37 PM:Vitter recently stated, "Prostitution is a core institution of societies throughout the world and throughout history.."
pj in jesusland wrote on July 10, 2007 4:42 PM:Maybe the GOP should look at this as a potential fundraiser -- turn lemons into lemonade by printing the faces of Gingrich, Livingston, Foley and, now, Vitter on a special GOP brand of condoms.
You could promote family values at the same time by printing something on the package like, "Show your wife you really care -- wear protection when having sex with hookers!"
buckheaddad wrote on July 10, 2007 4:54 PM:Now we know why/how Vitter was sooooooooooo well prepared and willing to RAM anti-gay-marriage legislation through . . . .
Benjamin wrote on July 10, 2007 4:58 PM:It really is quite a story this one. Many times in the past these d.c. madams have been discovered in some hotel room dead from "an apparent overdose" or "shot dead by a mugger" before these names and numbers have gotten out. Where can we find them(the numbers)I personally would love to spend a weekend calling them to see who answers. We have got to see all the names with all the faces.
buckheaddad wrote on July 10, 2007 5:13 PM:One must admit that there are few authors of Broadway Plays, or Comedy Television who could "top" these stories out of Washington.
Even if only 1% of what we hear is true (which is just the very tip of the iceberg), this is just hysterical.
Toooooooooooooooooooooo bad my laughter is "trumped" (Mr. Bush) by the horror instigated by these politicos and the current administration. . . . wonder how many of George Bush's pieces of legislation this crook voted for.
And Mr. Bush is CONCERNED ABOUT HIS LEGACY and HOW HE'LL BE VIEWED HISTORICALLY. How does "W" sleep at night . . probably in a drunken stupor.
HOW DEPRESSING.
scioto wrote on July 10, 2007 6:13 PM:"Vitter has built his reputation on family-values platforms such as marriage protection and abstinence-only programs."
It would be nice if the MSM stopped allowing the right-wing to control the language. "Family values" would better be descriptive of health care, living wage, good education, and a plethora of other things, rather than the right-wing fixation on their approved sex activities.
At the very least, if the MSM uses the term "family values" it should be in quotes.
mo2 wrote on July 10, 2007 6:20 PM:Miggsathon, The rumor is that Death Cheney solicited these fine ladies when he was still at Halliburton, but that is prior to the phone records that have been released. Many MSM articles used the phrase "former CEO."
http://wonkette.com/politics/dept'-of-dubious-rumors/oh-hey-cheneys-maybe-on-the-dc-madams-list-259034.php
rumrunner wrote on July 10, 2007 6:24 PM:"The “former CEO” supposedly on the DC Madam’s phone list is “former” Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney. He paid money to some poor girl and stuck his thing in her deal. ABC News all but dropped the story when Cheney threatened to jam that prop phone three feet up the ass of Brian Ross. That’s why the formerly explosive scandal story instead got seven minutes at the end of whatever ABC News show Friday night."
Leave it to a master hypocrite like this one to use his kids (and their illness as newborns) so brazenly in campaign ads.
stinkpea wrote on July 10, 2007 6:57 PM:Oh, if only he could be the first in a long line of tumbling dominoes.
But I've spent a lifetime in Louisiana, and let me assure you he'll wiggle out of all this and get re-elected in 2010 -- with the Christian fundamentalist vote to boot.
GO Larry Go!
flex wrote on July 10, 2007 7:06 PM:"Vitter recently stated, "Marriage is a core institution of societies throughout the world and throughout history. It's something that has provided permanence and stability for our very social structure."
right on Vitter! nothing like a little nookie on the side to strengthen the institution of Marriage.
jo6pac wrote on July 10, 2007 7:27 PM:
gerbear wrote on July 10, 2007 7:37 PM:I just want to know did he use his Gov. credit card and expense this out?
jo6pac
If Flynt could get Gannon to sing, I'd subscribe to Hustler Magazine for the rest of my life. And I'm gay.
aeskylos wrote on July 10, 2007 8:08 PM:You "gotta" love Larry Flynt. Once again he comes galloping through the town crying out yet another hypocrite's name. Makes it tougher to be a liar and a crook in Congress with that damn pesky Flynt around bellowing out the naked truth. I hope to hell our brave Larry helps tear down this evil awful Bushworld in the very near future.
Anon wrote on July 10, 2007 9:05 PM:She posted the phone numbers on her website...google it.
www.deborahjeanepalfrey.com
PPDrake wrote on July 10, 2007 9:05 PM:This was rumored down here for a long time; today the madam of the Canal Street Brothel, the client list which was immediately deep-sixed, said Vitter was on it.
jan hutchinson wrote on July 10, 2007 9:38 PM:The real crime is that the local (new orleans and louisiana) media aided in covering this up through its omission....not demanding the list under freedom of information. As a a result, we got this sanctimonious finger-wagging asshole for near a decade.
Larry Flynt needs a medal of freedom.
anonymous wrote on July 10, 2007 9:55 PM:there MUST be another reason gingrich sticks around d.c. so much.
Paul wrote on July 10, 2007 10:04 PM:Another name on the list that I have found doing research is Stephen Ecklund ph# 202-326-2841.
Name sound familier? He was an investigator at the FTC....
Heres the proof:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1999/02/threadin.shtm
John John wrote on July 10, 2007 10:12 PM:On the side name. Not looked lately but ill bet its where its alwasys been. If it were not those rerpukes would neber find it.
John John wrote on July 10, 2007 10:17 PM:The best question is who was paying for this sexcapdes? The John boys or the Taxpayer!. The FBI needs to get copies of the records and see how the charges were paid. This more than their trying to shut her up.
Sarah wrote on July 10, 2007 11:15 PM:Excuse me for not being hip, but I happen to agree with the Republican's definition of marriage: a woman, a man, and his prostitute.
Terri wrote on July 10, 2007 11:30 PM:I've watched Dick Cheney slober over Donald Rumsfeld (best damn Secretary of Defense ever!) and I've noted how often they dovetail their careers and even have bought retirement homes near each other in Maryland. To me, that looks suspicious. We know Cheney's family has genetic presence of homosexuality - why not from him? I think they could be outed.
Chuckee wrote on July 10, 2007 11:30 PM:Did y'all get a copy of the forgiveness letter from god? Or maybe a web site address? 'Cause I'd REALLY like to see either one.
Anonymous wrote on July 11, 2007 12:38 AM:Larry flynt - Michael Moore, what a team for truth,
what the corporate mainstream regresive media won't report,
that's why they're running scared.
Belle wrote on July 11, 2007 1:14 AM:The local paper is a must-read - www.nola.com. See, here in New Orleans we're no strangers to brothels. Seems Mr. Family values has a taste for prostitutes. Time to go, Vitter.
nerody17 wrote on July 11, 2007 1:21 AM:For Bill Clinton sin , there was invistigation,dozen impeachment managers, EMPEACHMENT ,Senate with Chief justice setting trail....Big Noise...etc. Now this Vitter sin and compleste silence/ I don't here senator Grahamm or congressman Bolton comments....
Don wrote on July 11, 2007 2:14 AM:Go after the my dick can do it but yourse can't scum, less than four inches Im sure
Gandy wrote on July 11, 2007 6:21 AM:Brian Ross is bullshit.
Gandy wrote on July 11, 2007 6:21 AM:Brian Ross is bullshit.
Ed Lazarus wrote on July 11, 2007 6:36 AM:Hey! Mr. Vitter! Remember what your wife said about Hillary and Bill? Better sleep with one eye open---you miserable "Holier Than Though" hypocrite!
snorked wrote on July 11, 2007 7:02 AM:Guys, get a grip on yourselves for a minute. THOUSANDS of phone numbers? What makes you so certain that we're not going to find prominent DEMOCRATS on that list? I'm not defending Vitter, just pointing out the obvious truth that the nefarious sin of sex with prostitutes knows no party-line distinctions.
john wrote on July 11, 2007 7:54 AM:Keep up the good work Larry. We need someone like you to weed out these rascals. It's truly taxation without representation by ANOTHER king george when the "Indians" dumped the tea in Boston harbor
John wrote on July 11, 2007 9:18 AM:Sarah says:
"Republican's definition of marriage: a woman, a man, and his prostitute."
Can we get this on a bumber sticker?
pj in jesusland wrote on July 11, 2007 9:49 AM:The Republican definition of marriage sounds very similar to the French definition of marriage -- a woman, a man and his mistress.
Frank wrote on July 11, 2007 10:12 AM:I hate myself for loving what Larry Flynt is doing. But after a lifetime of torment at the hands of these untouchable hypocites and frauds in Washington, it truly feels like medicine. Let them all go down in flames, Democrats and Republicans alike...the larger the hypocricy the harsher the punishment.
Frank wrote on July 11, 2007 10:13 AM:I hate myself for loving what Larry Flynt is doing. But after a lifetime of torment at the hands of these untouchable hypocites and frauds in Washington, it truly feels like medicine. Let them all go down in flames, Democrats and Republicans alike...the larger the hypocricy the harsher the punishment.
Julie wrote on July 11, 2007 11:22 AM:Here here! Take them all down. Democrats and republicans alike. Washington is full of hypocrites. When will we get the courage to vote every single one of them out of office. Why have we become so complacent thinking they deserve to be in office for 40 yrs. Hell who wouldn't be corrupt?
Anonymous wrote on July 11, 2007 11:36 AM:Surely, Vitter didn't write checks from his campaign war chest! He needs to put a lock on that box like the one he promised while running for the Senate to Social Security recipients ten years after the idea died for the lack of serious consideration in the hallowed halls of in Congress!
rob colmes wrote on July 11, 2007 6:17 PM:I LIVE in Louisiana and watched Vitters disgusting campaign ads where he was helping his daughters sell lemonade; and having sex on the side with whores. He is an ultra right wing Bible Thumper Hypocrite like most Republicans in Louisiana are. Incredible to think this scum bag is our Federal senator. I am an ardent Mary Landrieu supporter; and thank GOD we have ONE honest Representative in Washington. CLEAN house in October starting with the Presidency.
Aly wrote on July 12, 2007 10:12 PM:resigtered Democrat
Louisiana
To answer someone's question about the democrats. It's not that they did or didn't have affairs or what kind of sex they had that Flynt is after. It's the hyprocicy!!!There was enough of that!!! AND the repubs that spoke like they would NEVER do such a thing are being brought out! GOOD for Flynt!!!!
Gandhi wrote on July 16, 2007 5:19 PM:Soon the family value party will declare meeting prostitutes as a way to protect conventional marriages . Since Vitter is a staunch supporter of family values (nothing wrong with that) they will find a way to spin the facts.