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Senate Ethics Committee Clears David Vitter
The Senate ethics committee has dismissed a complaint against Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) for soliciting prostitution.
The complaint was filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The group had charged that Vitter's solicitation of prostitutes in Washington, D.C. and Louisiana had broken the law and thus was "improper conduct" that ought to be punished. Vitter reportedly used the D.C. Madam's escort service, in addition to repeatedly visiting a prostitute in New Orleans back in 1999.
The committee dismissed the complaint, according to the letter, because "the conduct at issue" occurred before Vitter's run for the Senate, he was not charged criminally, and because it "did not involve use of public office or status for improper purposes."
The letter, signed by all six members of the committee, adds: "The Committee also wishes to make clear that this decision to dismiss this matter without prejudice should not be taken as personal approbation or acceptance by any of the members of the Committee of the kind of conduct alleged in this matter. In fact, if proven to be true, the Members of the Committee would find the alleged conduct of solicitation for prostitution to be reprehensible."
You can see the letter here.
Update: The response from CREW's Naomi Seligman is to the point: "The Senate Ethics Committee has once again done what is does best: nothing.... While Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who committed suicide last week, was found guilty of operating a prostitution ring, Sen. Vitter has not been held accountable for his activities. He walks away without even a slap on the wrist."
Comments (29)
Well, that really blows. Doesn't it?
May 8, 2008 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
and yet Spitzer was SO GUILTY of crime vice and hypocrisy. What tripe this is.
May 8, 2008 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whores is OK for Repubs, bad for Demos.
May 8, 2008 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
What did you expect?
Never, ever trust a politician.
Policing themselves is ridiculous.
May 8, 2008 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Gotalife would agree with me that Sen. Vitter has done nothing wrong. Anyone who disagrees is simply a troll whiner who has been drinking the cool air.
May 8, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gotalife for president!!!!
May 8, 2008 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would read the letter carefully before dismissing it (no pun) as "taking a pass." It is very carefully drafted to recognize the limited nature of the allegations made in the specific complaint it addresses, which, it appears, only involve conduct prior to Vitter's entry into the Senate. I trust none of us believe that the Senate ethics committee has (or should have) jurisdiction to pass on the conduct of Senators which took place before they became Senators?
I would also note that the dismissal is without prejudice, and explicitely recognizes that additional allegations (such as allegations of criminal activity during Vitter's Senate service) could result in the inquiry being reopened.
May 8, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Indeed. I'm beginning to think that even here it's hard to find people who actually think about the things they're reading.
May 8, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're correct. How are knee-jerk reactions from the left any better than knee-jerk reactions from the right. I wish Vitter would face some repercussions from this, but there's nothing the Senate Ethics Committee COULD do in this case.
Please, people, THINK first! Haven't we had enough idiocy from the Bush administration? I'd like to believe we're better - or at least smarter - than that.
May 9, 2008 9:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Diaper Dave gets off scot-free. How sad.
May 8, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
The next logical step is for Dumbya to award Vitter a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
May 8, 2008 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
What is the point of having a House Ethics Committee, if they refuse any action? This is the third or fourth time the Ethics committee has passed on or handed down a fluff punishment. I thought the Democrats were going to clean house? Pathetic!
May 8, 2008 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
IF PROVEN TO BE TRUE??????????????
If anyone needed any further proof that the Senate Democrats are spineless cowards then it seems to me this ought to suffice. Disgusting. What swine they are! What cowards!
May 8, 2008 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's so much easier now that Ms. Palfrey is dead. Funny how that worked out, isn't it?
This, simply put, is bullshit.
Yo, calling Larry Flynt. Apparently it takes Hustler to do any kind of fucking journalism these days.
This administration and every gooper elected official should be fired, impeached (and while we're at it, tried and hung for war crimes!)
http://www.livefrankly.wordpress.com
Don't ask me why, but this really pisses me off. The rest of their shenanigans are de rigueur but this is just over the top. Un-fucking-real.
May 8, 2008 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
People in glass houses and all.
Lest someone discovers the logs in their eyes, it's all forgive and forget. Just like Pelosi taking impeachment off the table because she was aware of and consented to illegal wiretaps long ago.
Now Craig and Vitter can finally carry on with the people's work.
May 8, 2008 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Makes you wonder how many members of the "Ethics Committee were in the DC Madam's phone book.
May 8, 2008 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
"But Vitter doesn't get off without some finger-wagging"
Huh, so that's what gets him off, I thought it was something else. Of course, I guess it "depends" WHERE you "wag the finger."
May 8, 2008 6:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
One word: Gerbils
May 8, 2008 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ugh, as a LA resident, I am disgusted. I was really hoping that now that we have a Republican governor they'd pressure him to step down, but no such luck.
May 8, 2008 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
To paraphrase Richard Nixon:
"When a Republican does it, that means that it is not illegal."
May 8, 2008 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ethics Committee, My Ass.We live in a Criminal Dump.America will be stripped of all of its national resources in the next 50 years or so.Then the Republican scum will have nothing to steal.They can never steal what is so very important our spirits to replace their black souls.
I feel happy about that,and I will continue to fight them as long as my body functions.
May 8, 2008 6:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
IF PROVEN TO BE TRUE??????????????
What, you think his public confession proves it?
"Well, (heh,heh), there you go again..."
May 8, 2008 7:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
What I get from the Committee is that they wanted very much to follow through with the complaint, but that their rules didn't make it possible.
I'd suspect that the rules as they stand are so narrow that Vitter would have had to do his prostitute in the Capitol rest room—while a Senator—before they could take action against him.
So the rules should be changed, but getting the rules changed by a majority (most of them CYA politicians) is the rub.
May 8, 2008 8:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dave the Sh!tter gets off with a clean diaper.
Thanks for nothing, Senate Sleazebag Committee.
~
May 8, 2008 8:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
So Vitter lives to get diapered another day. As a former resident of LA, all I can do is shake my head & feel sorry for those who were duped into electing this hooker-bait with his phoney family values platform. Along with his pal Gov.Jindal, who touts an obstructive, non-existant "transparent governing" (in name only) policy, he does his best to live up to the GOP credo "Do as I say, Not As I Do".
May 8, 2008 9:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
And Spitzer couldn't resign fast enough. How long has this bozo hung on, in an office where he can still do real harm?
May 9, 2008 12:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nice, this means I can go buy Rep. Wexler some cocaine and hookers!!
May 9, 2008 2:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
O.M.F.G.
May 9, 2008 9:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hope whoever runs against him when he comes up for re election will bring up the "Dirty Diaper Fetish" issue over and over again. I doubt if even whites think that's acceptable.
May 9, 2008 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink