David Vitter Prays He Can get Away With It

Our U.S. senator wields his power
like a guy in a sex scandal

By Rudy Clarkovich

The Levee exotic senator writer

A new Levee poll shows that based on Louisiana U.S. Sen. David Vitter’s actions since it was learned in July that he frequented Washington D.C. call girls, most voters in his home state overwhelmingly thought he already had resigned.

“What in the name of J-E-S-U-S is he doing up there?” one poll respondent asked.

Vitter is ranked the 85th most powerful member of the 100-member U.S. Senate, according to the ranking group Knowlegis. His rank is in the neighborhood of freshman senators and the Larry Craig’s of the body.

In the meantime, Louisiana Republicans, including Gov. Bobby Jindal and state Treasurer John Kennedy, until recently a Democrat, got together last month and hosted a fundraiser for Vitter that raised him as much as a half-million dollars.

Even that fundraiser, held at the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, was interrupted by several women sent to the event by Hustler publisher Larry Flynt, who forced the moral crusader Vitter to admit to having frequented call girls.

Vitter, who has been busiest pushing legislation that has no direct benefit to hurricane-. investment- and Army Corps of Engineers-devastated Louisiana, has held a few town hall meetings in the conservative netherlands of the state recently, and also been bold enough to conduct such town hall meetings by telephone.

During one recent call, one of the participants was Scott Jordan, editor of The Independent Weekly in Lafayette, who asked Vitter about the sex scandal as well as the one that was circling now-resigned N.Y. Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

“I need to spend my whole life making up for that,” Vitter said, sounding genuine and contrite, according to Jordan, before turning “a bit defiant,” and saying, “The people that are trying to draw comparisons to the two cases are people who’ve never agreed with me on important issues like immigration and other things,” apparently ignoring the large group of conservatives who agree with him on immigration but believe he should resign. Vitter moved on to another caller.

Among the actions Vitter has been involved with recently in the name of Louisiana are:

- Sponsoring an amendment to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) that requires a 33 percent abstinence-only earmark and requires any person or groups working with prostitutes to sign a “prostitution pledge” that is a declaration that they condemn prostitution.

- Sponsoring an amendment banning funding of abortions through Indian Health Care Improvement Act. The ban has been in effect for 25 years, and still is in effect, but Vitter’s action quite literally just makes sure.

- Pushing failed immigration legislation.

- Co-sponsoring a bill rescinding from Berkeley, Calif., $2 million in earmarks because many in the city want to oust a U.S. Marine recruiting office there.

- Being joined by Craig in blocking the U.S. Attorney in Boston’s appointment to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, claiming he holds gun dealers and owners to unreasonable licensing standards and subjects them to severe penalties if they make errors in paperwork.

As far as legislation benefiting Louisiana ... crickets.

Vitter will keep Louisiana in the public eye in April as the trial of the accused mistress whose call-girl ring Vitter frequented gets under way. Vitter might serve Louisiana as a witness in that trial.

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