Vitter'll be fine. After all, as he himself has stated, he has been forgiven for his wanderings (perhaps "toddlings" is a better word, since the whores allegedly dressed him in diapers). Forgiven "both by my family and by God" - I wonder how Vitter was dressed when God himself handed him a pardon. Hope he donned a clean Pamper for the occasion.

This is gotcha politics at its worst. Senator Vitter's personal failings are regretable but they have nothing to do with public policy or issues.

His aledged misdeeds are between him, his wife and his God.

Pretty soon, folks'll be sayin', "Think I'll go on down to the Vitterhouse and get me some o' that poontang, uh huh, yep."

Senator Vitter's personal failings are regretable but they have nothing to do with public policy or issues.

His aledged misdeeds are between him, his wife and his God.

Can't some people with hidden cameras visit Republican activist groups and get people in those offices talking about how to thwart the "socialist agenda of that n*igger in the White House"?

When they put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue.

Vitter's probably just stupid. But maybe he misunderstood the old political advice of "hang a lantern on your problem."

He's got the publicity part right, but he missed the open-and-honest-discussion-and-genuine-remorse part that's supposed to come first.

"I've hurt my family but I'm forgiven" bullshit doesn't count.

Would it really have been so difficult to say "I know personally the devastation the scourge of prostitution can cause to a strong, loving, godly family. Therefore, I propose ...."

"Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. . ."

I think we need to jump on the bandwagon - and insist it applies to all federal contractors including military. Have we already forgotten about the gross abuses taking place overseas? I'm fine with holding people to strict standards as long as it applies to all.

Misdeeds are between him, his wife , his God , and the itty bitty statutes he midwifed .

STFU, let Vitter push this through into law, just make sure it covers all payments by local, state and federal governments to any organization that advises people on how to avoid paying taxes! Then sit back and watch Wall Street dump on the Republicans.

Senator Vitter's personal failings are regretable but they have nothing to do with public policy or issues.

Nice liberal stance there, Al. Kind of hilarious though in case of somebody like Senator Vitter who's been building a whole career by running around and making 'family values' a matter of public policy.

Tell you what: Why don't we come back to this once conservatives have given up their urge to peek into other people's sleeping rooms.

shoeflyin, surely you don't think that rape is as bad as giving tax advice to prostitutes? And giving tax advice to prostitutes must be worse than killing civilians. Otherwise, KBR/Halliburton and Blackwater would have not gotten any government work for a while now.

Glad to know that the "Conservatives" have their priorities straight.

Vitter is just making this easy.

He sure is. Now watch him get re-elected.

There is no inconsistency here: Vitter opposes fake prostitution rings, but has a major jones for the real ones. He obviously fears that the fake ones will deflate the, um, hopes of poor, God-fearing johns everywhere. Ain't nothin' sadder than flaccid hope.

Vitter should be force to wear his diapers while doing business on the Senate floor, and while campaigning .. especially when he is talking about 'family values' ...........

Okay ... I watched the video, and a few thoughts:

1. The woman was obviously joking. Dear god, it plays out like a bad Videography 101 project by some rightwing clown.

2. The fact the police have verified that her ex-husbands are, in fact, ya know, still alive, proves #1 above.

3. If Vitter and other conservatives (and even a few Dems, which is ricockulous) want to cut off funding for ACORN because one woman didn't break any laws, why don't they propose cutting funding for Blackwater? Their folks have, in reality, broken lots of laws.

4. The media has, once again, fallen for some rightwing freakout about absolutely nothing -- which should, once and for all, kill the "liberal media" myth. If it's on Drudge, it'll be on the 6 o'clock news. It's that simple.

Listen ... does ACORN have a few nuts?* I'm sure they do.

But so does my company! And so does every single other company or organization. It's a big country, full of millions of silly/stupid/short-sighted people. So, yeah. It happens.

It's sad and pathetic that a group that does so much good is getting slandered like this. It really, really is.

(*Sorry. Couldn't resist. :-] ).

Gradysu: "Ain't nothin' sadder than flaccid hope."

Except maybe coffee spewed on a computer screen. Thanks for the laugh at my desk!

Glad to see your time in the Journ-O-list chatroom is paying off, Steve. It's refreshing to open my feed reader and see all my lefties on the same page hammering the same point home. That'll show those nasty conservatives.
Hmmm ... I wonder what would happen if maybe someone had an original thought and did stories that no one else was covering? Bet that would make their heads explode. Meh, why bother? Better to play it safe and go along with the crowd.
ANARCHISTS UNITE!
DYSLEXIC ANARCHISTS UNTIE!

I wonder what would happen if maybe someone had an original thought and did stories that no one else was covering?

That's a good question.

But instead of whining about it, why don't you go ahead and do that? Here -- I'll help: Free blogging software!

I did not have the stomach to fully immerse myself in this particular wingnut cesspool. But the half a transcript I did read basically went as follows:

Dude: my girlfriend is totally a hooker and its like unfair and stuff that she can't get a mortgage.

Pretendwhore: ya I just totally boffed a guy for money.

ACORN worker: well, if you can show a lender you have a regular income by depositing your income in a bank account at regular intervals, and start paying taxes on it (which I'm sure won't look fishy to the IRS ), and, um, I don't know, don't tell the loan officer "I'm a prostitute" during the interview, you may have a shot....

Dude: We totally tricked you and I just made a pun without meaning to! Off to pick up my wingnut welfare check!!!

Grimm,

Go to the Google page. Follow the links and they'll tell you how you can start your own blog. For free!

Go on, now. The world awaits your original thinking.

Senator Vitter's "personal failings" WOULD be his own business, if he didn't incessantly try to promote legislation criminalizing other people's "personal failings." No one who voted to impeach Clinton has any standing whatsoever to complain when his own bedroom shenanigans are exposed to the entire country for our prurient amusement.

I must be missing something. Don't people regularly pay accountants and lawyers lots of money to show them how they can avoid paying taxes? Isn't that what H&R Block puts in their ads?

The Vitter hypocrisy is very real and will never leave.

The ACORN funding debacle is absurd. If a congressman is caught taking a bribe the immediate reaction is not to cut funding for all of congress.

The tremendous amount of good ACORN has done for this nation is never mentioned by conservatives. They try to pretend it is a total fraud completely ignoring all the good it has done to combat poverty.

The republican hypocrisy is set to destroy our democracy while claiming "Country First". They have never done one single thing for the people of America making sure our nation will never achieve the greatness it could easily achieve without republican obstructionism.