Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), who, for a time, looked like he was going to become a casualty of a particular sordid Washington sex scandal, has been cleared of all wrongdoing in the “DC Madam” case. Vitter, whose telephone number appeared on the client list of Washington madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey will face no repercussions from the Senate Ethics Committee, because, the Committee found, Vitter’s actions occurred before he was sworn in as a United States senator in 2005. The Washington Post points out that though he was a member of the United States House of Representatives at the time, the House Ethics Committee has no jurisdiction over him now that he’s in the Senate.
Vitter suffered the humiliation of sex scandal less than two years after taking the oath of office for his very first term in the Senate. When his phone number turned out to be among the ones on Palfrey’s list, a former prostitute from New Orleans known as Wendy Cortez gave a tell-all interview with Hustler claiming that Vitter was a client of hers for many years while he was a state legislator in the late 1990s. The timing of the scandal was unfortunate as well: Vitter was among a number of Republican lawmakers who’s behavior undermined Republican electoral chances during the midterm elections in 2006.
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