The fact that politicians frequent prostitutes wouldn’t even be a scandal if their own hypocrisy didn’t make it so. Personally I don’t give a damn about politicians’ (non-illegal) personal proclivities except in the mildly prurient, nosy way that we all, despite our protestations, secretly do, but this sex scandal’s not about sex so much as the public exposure of the moral hypocrisy of the Bush administration and of Washington culture.
The demise of a call-girl ring and pending trial of an alleged madam claiming thousands of clients has the US capital riveted by the chance powerful men may now be caught with their trousers down, with a senior state department official apparently first to fall.
Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 50, dubbed the DC Madam in local media, has been arraigned in federal court on charges of operating a Washington prostitution service for 13 years until her retirement in 2006.
This is going to run and run and I shall quite openly enjoy every moment. Part of that enjoyment will be watching the religious right twist themselves into theological and rhetorical knots trying to excuse exposed Republicans. Hmm. I wonder how long it’ll be before lots of loyal Bushies mysteriously start pre-emptively checking into rehab and finding Jesus?
There’s 10,000 prominent DC men’s names to come, all said to have been clients of the escort service and Condi’s deputy Randall Tobias – “she loves him, the president loves him” – resigned on Friday.
Expect to see lots more stories like this from Think Progress :
Official Caught Using Escort Service Demanded Anti-Prostitution ‘Loyalty Oaths’
Former U.S. AID director Randall Tobias, who resigned yesterday upon admitting that he frequented a Washington escort service, oversaw a controversial policy advocated by the religious right that required any US-based group receiving anti-AIDS funds to take an anti-prostitution “loyalty oath.”
Aid groups bitterly opposed the policy, charging that it “was so broad — and applied even to their private funds — that it would obstruct their outreach to sex workers who are at high risk of transmitting the AIDS virus.” But President Bush wouldn’t budge. He signed a 2003 National Security Presidential Directive saying prostitution “and related activities” were “inherently harmful and dehumanizing.”
Several groups and countries had their funding cut due to the policy. Brazil lost $40 million for “one of its most successful anti-AIDS strategies, persuading sex workers to use condoms or other measures to stop spreading the disease.”
During an “Ask the White House” online chat in 2004, Tobias defended the policy, saying the U.S. was “partnering with communities” to begin “fighting sex trafficking and prostitution, while still serving victims of these activities.” Tobias added that he was overseeing several “highly successful” relationship programs “aimed at men and boys to help them develop healthy relationships with women.”
A truly inspired idea, having someone who pays for “gals come over to the condo to give me a massage” run programs on developing “healthy relationships with women.”
And this is just one of the many hypocritical wingnuts in high positions about to be exposed. The Heritage Foundation and the Hudson Insitute had better start taking on admin staff to deal with the massive influx of wingnut welfare applications they’ll be getting….
