Griper Blade: Hookerquake Coming for the Religious Right?

It's a good news, bad news sort of thing. The good news is that a bunch of legislative lawbreakers may be about to take a fall. The bad news is that it'll happen over something that shouldn't matter.

By now, you've probably heard of Louisiana Senator David Vitter, who's name turned up on D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey's recently released phone records. While still recovering from that revelation, Vitter -- who runs Rudy Giuliani's southern campaign -- was also outed by New Orleans Madam Jeanette Maier. "As far as the girls coming out after seeing David, all they had was nice things to say," she told a reporter for the AP. "It wasn't all about sex. In fact, he just wanted to have somebody listen to him, you know."

Good to know. I should say right here and now that I really couldn't care less about who does and doesn't visit prostitutes. Like I say, it shouldn't matter. My view on prostitution is like my view on drugs -- legalize and regulate as a public health issue, not as a criminal issue. Both are so low on my list of priorities that I couldn't really call myself as an advocate of either position. But if someone in Washington got the ball rolling on them, I'd be supportive. I'd rather deal with war, poverty, healthcare, and evironment first, but if someone wants to do the right thing on drugs and prostitution along the way, then yay for them.

What Vitter is facing isn't so much a case of committing the actual crime of being involved with street panderers -- at least, not in my mind. No, the immoral part of all this is his political pandering...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]