David Vitter: Sex, Lies and Polygraphs

[Joanne98]

The story that U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-LA) hoped would go away refuses to die, thanks to the persistence of Hustler publisher Larry Flynt. Yesterday, he announced that former New Orleans prostitute Wendy Yow Ellis, also known as Wendy Cortez, had passed a polygraph test administered by an international lie detector expert, Edward Gelb, former President of the American Polygraph Association. Cortez claims that she had a four month paid relationship at a French Quarter hotel with Vitter in 1999 while he was a State Representative. The polygraph test shows she is telling the truth. According to Mr. Gelb, the chances that Cortez is being untruthful are less than .01 percent.

Today, Flynt will hold a news conference with Cortez to provide more information about her claims. These accusations are nothing new to many of us who follow Louisiana politics. Starting in 1999, I heard reports that congressional candidate and then State Representative David Vitter was a client of a local prostitute named Wendy Cortez. According to GOP State Central Committee member Vincent Bruno, who worked in the campaign of former Governor Dave Treen, Cortez approached him and other Treen volunteers with her claims about a relationship with Vitter. She was upset that Vitter was campaigning for Congress on a family values platform. Eventually, Treen decided not to use the salacious information in his campaign and Vitter was elected.

Despite Vitter’s election to Congress, the prostitute story persisted. It was brought up during a 2002 interview that I conducted with Vitter on my radio show. He was asked directly about his relationship with Wendy Cortez and he denied it. Listen to the audio and decide for yourself whether he was telling the truth-- VITTER RESPONDS ON RINGSIDE RADIO

This interview was Vitter’s first public denial of a relationship with prostitute Wendy Cortez. In a 2004 radio interview, Vitter also denied being involved with Cortez. His most recent denial occurred on July 16 at a Metairie, LA press conference standing next to his wife when he claimed that “those New Orleans stories” were untrue. He did admit to a “very serious sin” and did not deny that his phone number appeared on the call list of the D.C. Madam, but he refused to address the New Orleans stories.

Was he lying in 2002, 2004 or in July? Either way, Vitter needs to clear up this situation. His constituents need to know the truth. He owes it to the people who are paying his salary and those who he represents in the United States Senate.

With this new revelation, Vitter faces a crucial leadership test. Will he continue to stonewall and deny the accusations or will he come clean and admit the truth? It seems pretty obvious that Vitter was involved with Cortez and possibly other prostitutes in New Orleans. It was likely a pattern of behavior that Vitter engaged in for several years both in New Orleans and Washington D.C. and did not just start when he was elected to Congress and started to work on Capitol Hill.

In responding, Vitter does not need to go through hoops for Larry Flynt, and take his lie detector test; however, he does need to be honest about his activity. If Vitter admits that he frequented prostitutes and had a problem, but sought counseling from his priest and forgiveness from his wife, then the voters of Louisiana will likely forgive him as well. Yet, if he continues to deny the accusations and refrain from discussing these serious allegations then he is only harming his Senate career and the interests of his constituents.

Louisiana needs a full-time U.S. Senator who is not distracted and can give his important job his full-time attention. Right now, with these questions swirling around him, Vitter cannot do his job effectively. It is time for the truth from Senator Vitter, nothing more and nothing less. Right now, he is stonewalling and being deceptive if not dishonest. It is quite sad that the claims of a former prostitute seem much more believable than the weak denials of a U.S. Senator.



Jeff Crouere is a native of New Orleans, LA and he is the host of a Louisiana based program, “Ringside Politics,” which airs at 8:30 p.m. Fri. and 10:00 p.m. Sun. on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and 5 till 9 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans and the Northshore. For more information, visit his web site at www.ringsidepolitics.com. E-mail him at [e-mail].
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/News/Louisiana/Politics/David_Vitter_Sex_Lies_and__Polygraphs__4634.asp

[homerk]

1. Good info about Vitter

One of the most revealing stories ever written about Vitter was this lengthy profile by Mary Jacoby in Salon as Vitter's election to the Senate in 2004 appeared certain. This is how Jacoby described Vitter and his campaign:

A family-values far-right conservative named David Vitter appears headed for victory on Tuesday in the U.S. Senate race in Louisiana. . . . He presents himself as a morally righteous, clean-cut family man, and his wife and three young children have become virtual campaign props. . . .
As for his background, she noted:
In Congress, Vitter became a reliable vote for the extreme right, earning a 100 percent rating from the American Conservative Union in 2002. He vowed to outlaw abortion in almost all cases, even when pregnancy results from rape or incest; his only exception was to save the life of the mother. And -- with an eye on the governor's office -- he continued the crusade against gambling that he'd started in 1993 with the ethics complaint against Gov. Edwin Edwards.
But most amazing of all is this charming incident that occurred back in 1999, when Bill Clinton's adultery was on the mind of every good, righteous, Southern Republican Christian Values Voter:
As Vitter geared up in 2002 to run for governor, his bitter race against Treen came back to haunt him. A Treen supporter, local Republican Party official Vincent Bruno, blurted out on a radio show that he believed Vitter had once had an extramarital affair.

The Louisiana Weekly newspaper followed up. Bruno told the paper that the young woman had contacted the Treen campaign in 1999 because she was upset that Vitter was portraying himself as a family-values conservative and trotting out his wife and children for campaign photo ops. Bruno, who declined to comment for this story, and John Treen interviewed the woman, who said she had worked under the name "Leah."

But after nearly a year of regular paid assignations with Vitter, the lawmaker asked her to divulge her real name, according to Treen, citing the account he said she gave him. Her name was Wendy Cortez, Treen said. She said Vitter's response was electric. "He said, 'Oh, my God! I can't see you anymore," John Treen told me, citing the woman's account to him and noting that Vitter's wife is also named Wendy. And Wendy Vitter does not appear to be the indulgent type.

Asked by an interviewer in 2000 whether she could forgive her husband if she learned he'd had an extramarital affair, as Hillary Clinton and Bob Livingston's wife had done, Wendy Vitter told the Times-Picayune: "I'm a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary. If he does something like that, I'm walking away with one thing, and it's not alimony, trust me."

[0007]

2. Welcome home homerk.

While watching Vitter's testify today I was thinking about Larry Flint, and resigned myself to the fact that Vitter had indeed skated.

Here's wishing that Vitter follows in the footsteps of Bob Livingston.