Character and comeuppance

Rod - I think these are two very different situations. In the first, you have a public official who, in the course of doing his job, deliberately lied to Congress about a very important issue. In the second, you have a public official who made a bad mistake in his private life. At least from the text of the article, Vitter confessed his transgressions to his wife and to God and asked for forgiveness. When confronted about this transgression by the press he told the truth about it. While I’m saddened to hear he was unfaithful to his wife, I’m impressed by his response to his family and to the American people.

Gonzales should be fired and left to face whatever consequences follow from lying to Congress. I’ll predict Vitter will face little to no fallout from this event. The American people are pretty forgiving if a public figure is honest with them. I still believe to this day that had President Clinton admitted up front that he did have an affair and that it was wrong he could have avoided all the trouble of the late ‘90s.

I wouldn't file the Vitter story under the "GOP comeuppance" file.

“Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counselling." - David Vitter, 2007.

"I'm a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary. If he does something like that, I'm walking away with one thing, and it's not alimony, trust me," ,"- Wendy Vitter, 2000.

Did the forgiveness come before or after the castration?

Still, it is fun to see another hypocrite caught with his pants down--literally.

I can't wait to hear what Rudy's ex-wives club will have to say as the campaign rolls on.

"it's not my place to judge Sen. Vitter's soul...."

....just to tee-hee-hee about it.

Victor, where have you been? Crunchy Conservativism is all about being consumers, as long as what is being consumed is deemed worthy and appropriate for consumption by the chief. So you have a guy who was "above" the Dan Rather pile-on or reporting on the William Jefferson fiasco, but not above piling on Limbaugh or this Vitter teapot-tempest. Call it "Paleo-Correctness", maybe.

What are you talking about, Pauli? I don't think there could possibly be enough piling on of Bill Jefferson. The man is a snake. I didn't realize I hadn't blogged on it here, but I can't and don't blog on everything.

Clinton's "mistake," while initially private, ceased to be so ...
When a certain party decided to drag it out into public.

You say to-MAY-to; I say to-MAH-to. That's what a sexual-harassment suit (the predicate I initially had) IS -- a public action. The particular suit in question had the go-ahead as prima facie credible from all nine Scotus judges, including such pious, breast beating, anti-abortion, anti-contraceptive, anti-gay, family values hypocrites as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens.

Either you think sexual-harassment (and criminal sexual acts like rape or pedophilia, for that matter) should not be an actionable tort (crime), or you acknowledge that a person's private sexual behavior becomes relevant in that context and thus, in principle, public in that context.

Hey, if you want to dismantle the sexual-harassment industry in the name of individual privacy ... where were you 20 years ago?

And my point stands -- none of that has nothing to do with the immoral joy the amoral cretins are taking in Vitter.

U.S. Senator David Vitter visited a Canal Street brothel several times beginning in the mid-1990s, paying $300 per hour for services at the bordello after he met the madam at a fishing rodeo that included prostitutes and other politicians, according to Jeanette Maier, the "Canal Street Madam" whose operation was shut down by a federal investigators in 2001.

After they met, Maier said Vitter became a customer at the Mid-City brothel. He made several visits, she said, but had stopped coming before federal agents raided the brothel.

At the New Orleans brothel, Maier said Vitter spent time with several women, but preferred one in particular named Wendy. She said all the girls that were with Vitter described him as a kind, respectful man, who did not talk down to them or use drugs.

"I'm not out to ruin a marriage, I'm out to save a man," Maier said. "I want his wife to know he's a good man, I want his children to know he's a good father. If he had sex out of wedlock, so what? At least he stayed with his children."

Loves him some hookers

So poor put upon Senator David Vitter seems to be more than a man who just made one little mistake and got caught. Darn, I need more popcorn.

At the New Orleans brothel, Maier said Vitter spent time with several women, but preferred one in particular named Wendy. She said all the girls that were with Vitter described him as a kind, respectful man, who did not talk down to them or use drugs.

"I'm not out to ruin a marriage, I'm out to save a man," Maier said. "I want his wife to know he's a good man, I want his children to know he's a good father. If he had sex out of wedlock, so what? At least he stayed with his children."

What does it say about America that our brothel owners are usually classier and more honest than our politicians?

When you're living in a glass house ...

SONG OF DEBORAH
..they chose new gods then was war in the gates.. awake awake deborah utter a song.. the Lord gave you dominion over the mighty.. curse you bitterly the inhabitants thereof who came not to the help of justice against the mighty.. they divided the prey, to every man a damsel or two.. let all thine enemies perish o Lord and the land rest forty years..

Deborah palfrey deserves the Pemberton Award for Clean Governance.
Palfrey list is like the Black Book of 1918.
That trial of the Century is deleted from all books, cursed be reporters.
The list there had 47000 names.
The list here has 46000 phone bills.
The listed are not womenizers, machos or ordinary sinners.
They are power brokers gay lutheran shock and awe agitators of all wars and all panics.
These wretches are one dirty cover to the real pimps deep underground.
A curse on the kingpins, Justice Charles Darling then and Judge Adolph Kessler now.

Noel Pemberton-Billing
Trial of the Century 1918