ATTN Miami Herald: Here is what a "womanizer" looks like-Sen. David Vitter!

[Hart2008]

A former New Orleans prostitute who will be featured in Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine appeared at his office Tuesday to accuse Sen. David Vitter of having a sexual relationship with her in 1999. Wendy Ellis told reporters that Vitter visited her two to three times a week for sexual relations between July and November 1999...
Vitter, 46, a first-term senator, apologized in July for committing a "very serious sin" and acknowledged his phone number was among those called several years ago by a Washington escort service run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Federal prosecutors accused Palfrey of racketeering by running a prostitution ring that netted more than $2 million over 13 years, but she claims her escort service was a legitimate business.
Vitter's admission came after Hustler magazine told the senator that his telephone number was linked to Palfrey's escort service.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iujeXCff2HdhLhgMP3tkI7HF16fg

In 1987 with the ascension of Bush the elder in jeopardy, a smear was circulated that the Democratic front-runner, former Colorado Senator Gary Hart was a "womanizer". Nothing was further from the truth. Hart was always a gentleman and 20 years later not a single woman has come forward by name to accuse him of any sexual impropriety. The truth behind the rumors was that Hart had not had a perfect marriage. He and his wife had been separated twice, and apparently was dating when separated. (Hart has now been married to his wife Lee for 50 years.) Similar stories existed about the sitting Vice President Bush who was running for the Republican nomination. It was well known in the media that Bush had an "office wife", Jennifer Fitzgerald, who served under Bush "in a variety of positions":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Fitzgerald

No one in the media asked Bush about his relationship with Fitzgerald, while Hart was hounded with questions about his marriage and his personal life. Hart was an expert in nuclear arms and foreign policy. He was attempting to negotiate an end to the cold war with Soviet premier Mikail Gorbachev, whom he intended to invite to his inauguration. Bush had masterminded the Iran-Contra affair from the Vice-President's office and was RNC chairman while the Watergate was unfolding in the media. Despite Hart's impeccable public record, and Bush's cloudy reputation, Hart was the candidate peppered with questions about his character.

In the middle of discussing weighty discussion about nuclear arms policy and foreign relations with New York Times political correspondent E. J. Dionne, Dionne raised the "womanizing" issue with Hart. Hart, understanding Dionne to mean that he was a man who frequented prostitutes or some such thing, became annoyed and told Dionne if he thought he was a womanizer he should follow him around. Dionne never did. Hart never claimed that he had been a perfect husband, or that his personal life should be subject to media reporters "outing" people they suspected of having been involved with him.

Hart's quote appeared in Dionne's otherwise flattering interview in the New York Times Sunday magazine in which his wife took responsibility for many of the problems in their marriage. (Again, they have now been married for 50 years.) Dionne's interview would not be published until after reporters from the Miami Herald had begun hiding in Hart's bushes trying to prove that Hart was, like Vitter, a womanizer. The Herald would claim that they had responded to Hart's "challenge" to follow him around when in fact they had not followed Hart, nor were they aware of any such "challenge" when they began stalking a lady and hiding in Hart's bushes.

Please contact the Miami Herald editors and ask them why they labeled Hart a Vitter-like womanizer, cheaply sensationalizing a candidates personal life and likely altering the outcome of a national election in a completely unprecedented manner, in the absence of any complaints from any woman alleging that she had engaged in a sexual relationship, for pay or otherwise, with Hart, or Hart's phone number appearing on a the calling list for a prostitution service. Please ask why the Miami Herald why they published the story about Hart in '87, (and republished the same story twice when Hart toyed with running for President in '04) despite denials from the parties involved in the accuracy of the Herald's story. Please ask the sleaze merchants at the Miami Herald why they would publish, and republish their incorrect story about Hart, while refusing to publish the fact the sitting Vice-President's phone number appears on the phone logs of the D.C. madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey:

:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:
Anders Gyllenhaal
Executive Editor
305-376-3790
[e-mail]

Dave Wilson
Managing Editor/News
954-538-7130
[e-mail]

Liza Gross
Managing Editor/Presentations & Operations
305-376-3415
[e-mail]

Rick Hirsch
Managing Editor/Multimedia
305-376-3504
[e-mail]

Pat Andrews
Assistant Managing Editor/Broward
954-938-7105
[e-mail]


:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:
:rant:

[SteppingRazor]

1. Are you serious?

Yeah, David Vitter's a john. He's a sleazebag. But what's that got to do with Gary Hart who, yes, was cheating on his wife with a woman half his age? You can't rewrite history.

Gary Hart had great ideas, and if he'd been elected in 1988, we'd be living in a far better world. Pity he couldn't control himself.

[acmavm]

2. Face it. This is just something that happens and has always

happened. I AM NOT SAYING IT'S RIGHT. But I am saying it is what men do, especially powerful men.

My problem is when they get caught, why do they lie? Why didn't Hart and Clinton just fess up and say, "So fucking what? Yeah, I did it. It's none of your damn business. My wife will make my life hell, that's her job." Because once they get caught lying, that's all she wrote folks.

[SteppingRazor]

3. Right. I agree.

Did you mean to respond to the OP, not me? :hi:

[acmavm]

10. Yep. I did mean to respond to the OP. I don't think it's right, believe

me. I think that humans have, or should have, the ability to judge right from wrong and to behave accordingly. But I also know that sex is just one of those things. If I had been Hils I'd have given Billy his walking papers. But she held in there and I think he's paying her back now throwing his support behind her run for the Oval Office.

I do think that for those who are such holier-than-thou phonies who think that they have the right to judge everyone's moral behavior should be raked over the coals (literally and figuratively) if they get caught doing this shit. I say run 'em out of town on a rail. But otherwise I think that we all have enough shit to keep ourselves busy and we don't need to stick our noses in anybody else's genitals (so to speak).

And I stand by what I said about Hart and Clinton. It was the lie that got 'em.

[Vanje]

5. "But I am saying it is what men do, especially powerful men. "

Yeah. But if it involves diapers or public toilet stalls, you can be sure , your perp is a republican.

[acmavm]

13. I wish we didn't have to hear about that stuff too. I don't think that

they guys should troll in a public bathroom. But guys troll for hookers on street corners so what can you do? Although again, it's the blatant hypocrisy that pisses me off.

I just plain don't want to know about anyone's sex life. There are far more interesting things about people than that. Unless of course it's part of a criminal act. I guess than it's pretty much something that you have to know.

But Hart and Clinton were not criminal acts, they didn't troll for hookers (although Billy has some bad taste if you ask me, i.e. Gennifer, Paula, & Monica).

[Hart2008]

11. Hart did say it was none of the media's business. Don't confuse him with Clinton...

The media said Hart was arrogant for saying his private life was none of their business.

Please find a statement from Hart about this issue you consider a lie.

According to Gallup, 60% of Americans felt the media was unfair to Hart.

Richard Nixon, a former political opponent, sent him a letter in support.

The problem was that the MSM kept repeating the story over and over when referring to him to the exclusion of covering the serious issues he was raising. It was much like the Dean scream for those to young to remember. The media also created the myth that reporting on his private life was acceptable because he challenged them to follow him when questioned about Vitter-like womanizing rumors.

[acmavm]

14. He lied all right...

<snip>

Hart officially declared his candidacy on April 13, 1987.<4> Rumors began circulating nearly immediately that Hart was having an extramarital affair. In an interview that appeared in the New York Times on May 3, 1987, Hart responded to the rumors by daring the press corps: "Follow me around. I don't care. I'm serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They'll be very bored."<5> The Miami Herald had been investigating Hart's rumored womanizing for weeks before the "dare" appeared in the New York Times. Two reporters from the Miami Herald had staked out his residence and observed an attractive young woman coming out of Hart's Washington, D.C., townhouse on the evening of May 2. The Herald published the story on Sunday, May 3, the same day Hart's dare appeared in print, and the scandal spread rapidly through the national media. Hart and his allies attacked the Herald for rushing the story into print, claiming that it had unfairly judged the situation without finding out the true facts. Hart claimed that the reporters had not watched both entrances to his home and could not have seen when the young woman entered and left the building. The Miami Herald reporter had flown to Washington, D.C. on the same flight as the woman, identified as Donna Rice. Hart was dogged with questions regarding his views on marital infidelity. In public, his wife, Lee, supported him, claiming the relationship with the young woman was innocent.<6> A poll of voters in New Hampshire for the New Hampshire Primary showed that Hart's support had dropped in half, from 32% to 17%, placing him suddenly ten points behind Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis.

On May 5, the Herald received a further tip that Hart had spent a night in Bimini on a yacht called the Monkey Business with a woman who was not his wife. The Herald obtained photographs of Hart aboard the Monkey Business with then-29-year-old model Donna Rice, sitting in over-50 year-old Hart's lap. The photographs were subsequently published in the National Enquirer. On May 8, 1987, a week after the Donna Rice story broke, Hart dropped out of the race. At a press conference, he lashed out at the media, saying "I said that I bend, but I don't break, and believe me, I'm not broken." A Gallup Poll found that nearly two-thirds (64%) of the U.S. respondents it surveyed thought the media treatment of Hart was "unfair." A little over half (53%) responded that marital infidelity had little to do with a president's ability to govern.

Not everyone was impressed with Hart's diatribe against the press. Television writer Paul Slansky noted that Hart had tried to deflect blame from himself for his downfall to the media, and that he offered no apology to betrayed supporters who now suddenly had to find other candidates to back. To many observers, the press conference was redolent of Richard Nixon's "Last Press Conference" of November 7, 1962, in which Nixon blamed the media for his loss in the 1962 California gubernatorial election. Hart, in fact, received a letter from Nixon himself commending him for "handling a difficult situation uncommonly well."

In December 1987, Hart returned to the race, declaring "Let's let the people decide!" He competed in the New Hampshire primary and received 4,888 votes, approximately 4%. After the Super Tuesday contests on March 8, he withdrew from the campaign a second time.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Hart

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

THE WATCH

Saturday dawned as a bright spring day, warm with the scent of flowers in the air. The neighborhood around Hart's townhouse awoke early.

In the early hours, Clifton watched the front while McGee watched the back street.

Investigations Editor Savage, photographer Smith and reporter Fiedler caught pre-dawn flights to Washington and discussed their objectives during the flight. Fiedler circled a passage in a New York Times Magazine article slated for Sunday publication and handed it to Savage.

“Follow me around, I don't care, ” Hart was quoted as saying. “I'm serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They'd be very, bored. ”

They arrived in Washington at 10:05 a.m. and reached the street in front of Hart's townhouse about 11. Smith and Savage parked on opposite corners with a clear view of Hart's car, but a partially obstructed view of the front door. Fiedler parked on the street behind the townhouse, where he could watch the alley entrance.

The reporters considered it crucial that at least one other staff member identify Hart and the woman to confirm what McGee had seen the night before.

Later, Hart denounced the watch as “spotty. ” McGee was alone while Clifton went for the car Friday night, no one was watching the townhouse from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., the back entrance wasn't covered at all time, and the view of the front door was sometimes blocked.

The reporters never considered the stakeout airtight. The words “around the clock” surveillance were struck from the story’s initial draft.

“It’s possible” the woman could have slipped out of the house, Savage later told The New York Times.

In midafternoon, there was a flurry of activity outside the Hart townhouse involving a maroon sedan that double-parked in front. Smith hurriedly took up pursuit of the car.

It traveled a few blocks and parked in front of a church. A couple - - definitely not Hart and the blond woman - - got out. “False alarm, ” Smith said.



THE DISCOVERY

At 8:40 p.m., the front of the townhouse was bathed in the orange glow of security lighting. The back street remained dark, shaded by large trees. McGee strolled toward the rear alley driveway.

He stopped in his tracks as he saw Hart and the blond woman emerge from the alley that led to Hart's garage entrance. McGee turned on his heels, picked up his pace, walked past the alley and headed toward the corner where Hart's car was parked.

As he rounded the corner, Fiedler, who had changed into a running outfit, jogged by him. “He's right behind me, ” McGee whispered hoarsely. Fiedler, who knows Hart from the campaign trail, crossed the street to the park to avoid recognition.

Hart's hands were thrust in his pockets, and he looked rapidly about the neighborhood. The blond woman clutched his right arm as they walked.

Hart appeared on guard. He walked a few feet, stopped, then walked on. When he and the woman reached his car, instead of getting inside, they turned and retreated down the block and into the front entrance.

“He might have recognized me from last night, ” McGee told Savage.

Minutes later, Hart emerged alone, strode directly to his car, got in and pulled into traffic. Smith, the photographer, followed Hart in his car.

Hart went only a few blocks more before parking and walking back toward his block, although not directly. He walked down a side street, turned a corner and promptly sat down. Clifton, following about 50 feet behind him, turned the corner and encountered Hart looking directly at him. Clifton continued on.

Hart again circled the block, this time approaching his townhouse toward his front door. He walked directly past the car in which McGee and Savage sat. To them, he seemed agitated. He appeared to yell over his shoulder toward someone on the other side of the street.

When Hart entered the alley behind his townhouse, Savage turned to McGee. “I think we should talk to him right now. ” Hart clearly knew he was being watched.

“It's your call, ” Savage said.

“Let's do it, ” said McGee.

http://www.unc.edu/~pmeyer/Hart/hartarticle.html
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Newspaper Stakeout Infuriates Hart
Report on Female House Guest Called 'Character Assassination'
By James R. Dickenson and Paul Taylor
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 4, 1987; Page A01

<snip>

The Miami Herald reported yesterday that a news team that staked out Democratic presidential front-runner Gary Hart's Capitol Hill town house determined that a young woman from Miami spent Friday night and Saturday with him while his wife was in Denver.

Hart, whose campaign has been debating for three weeks how to deal with questions of alleged "womanizing," denounced the story as "preposterous" and "inaccurate." He said he is the victim of "character assassination" by unethical and "outrageous" journalism that is "reduced to hiding in bushes, peeking in windows and personal harassment."

The paper, which spread the story across the top of its front page, said that a team of five Herald and Knight-Ridder reporters kept the front and rear entrances of Hart's town house under surveillance from Friday evening until Saturday night, except for a period between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. They said they saw Hart and the woman enter the house about 11:15 p.m. Friday and saw no one leave or enter until Hart and the woman came out at about 8:40 p.m. Saturday.

Members of the Herald team said they would have seen anyone entering or leaving the house during those hours, except for the predawn period. According to one of them, they "napped" during that time.

Approached by the reporters later Saturday night, Hart denied having any "personal relationship" with the woman, denied that she had spent the night at his house and said that she had come to Washington to visit friends. He said that the woman, identified by the Hart campaign as Donna Rice, was in his town house for only a few minutes and that she and a female friend from Miami had stayed at the home of William Broadhurst, a Washington attorney and friend of Hart. Telephones at Broadhurst's office and home were not answered yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/tours/scandal/hart.htm

[Hart2008]

15. Where exactly do you claim Hart lied? “I’m not denying anything, ” Hart said heatedly.

You cite long quotes from the Miami Herald, which has large inaccuracies in it. If you ever visited a D.C. townhouse you would understand the large hole in the Herald's surveillance: normal entrance or exit is through the garage in the back. They never saw Rice enter the property, so they never saw how she left the property: in a car through the garage. What they saw was Rice walk out the front door and then walk back in the house after viewing the front lawn. Their reporting was very slanted, deceitful and sloppy at best, and very possibly willful and malicious.

The Herald offers the following exchange:

"He implored Hart to offer evidence that would clarify the situation. He said, “You, of all people, know the sensitivity of this.” And he told Hart that The Herald intended to publish an account of what the reporters had witnessed and what Hart had confirmed. Please be forthcoming, Fiedler said.

“I've been very forthcoming, ” Hart said.

What is your relationship with the blond woman?

“I have no personal relationship with the individual you are following, ” Hart said.

Are you denying that you met her on the yacht? McGee asked.

“I’m not denying anything, ” Hart said heatedly.

http://www.unc.edu/~pmeyer/Hart/hartarticle.html

Rice, in one of only two interviews she has ever given on the subject, stated that the purpose of her visit to D.C. was to end her brief relationship with Hart:

"I agreed to see him one last time—to confront him face-to-face about his sincerity and with the intention of ending our brief relationship."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/1996/sepoct/6w5042.html?start=3

Hart used the present perfect: '“I have no personal relationship with the individual you are following, ” Hart said.' Rice had ended the relationship, so Hart's statement was true. He never said he "never had" a personal relationship with Rice, and Rice denied the brief relationship was sexual. Rice's professional career was ruined by the media attention. Her former boyfriend Don Henley of the Eagles wrote the song Dirty Laundry for her about the incident.

The Washington Post story you cite is simply an edited reiteration of the Herald's story. As such, it is a merely a second hand source to the original story and of little historical value. It is worth noting that it was not the Herald's story which forced Hart to withdrawal from the campaign in May of '87. The Herald's story was not accurate. While Hart was dealing with trash from the Herald he got low bridged by the Washington Post. Paul Taylor of the Washington Post threatened to "out" another woman he believed had had an affair with Hart, NOT that the woman had admitted to anything. Hart withdrew to protect her reputation, which is hardly the behavior of a "womanizer". (Taylor regretted what he had done and resigned from the Post over how the matter was handled.) Hart reentered the race after the Post agreed to kill the story.

Oh, yes I was wrong. It wasn't 60% in the Gallup poll who thought the media was unfair to Hart. It was 64%.

[Maribelle]

6. Vitter broke laws in more than one state.

When men cheat on their wives, sadly that is the wife's problem to sort out. When men break multiple laws and continue to get away with their crimes, then he should be dealt with just as strongly as the kids that are in prision for smoking pot.

If we don't like the laws we can try to change them; breaking them requires arrests.

[SteppingRazor]

7. I completely agree.

I just don't like it when people on our side engage in truthiness.

[Hart2008]

9. I don't like it when people on our side repeat MSM smears against a good Dem. n/t

[Hart2008]

17. Cheney broke the law too. The media double standard is the issue here. n/t

[Hart2008]

8. Donna RIce denied the relationship was sexual and refused millions for interviews

That gives her great credibility in many people's eyes. She now works to protect children from Internet pornography. I think we give good and decent people the benefit of the doubt, or would you want people to pass judgment on everything you do privately? You can let you imagination run wild, but there is no proof that Hart was cheating with Rice. As Lee Hart said at the time, "If Gary says nothing happened, nothing happened." She should know better than you do, or do you really claim to know the man better than his wife?

Yes, the world would now be a better place had Hart won in '88, but don't blame him for the double standards in reporting on his personal life vs. Bush and Cheney. If the media wants to engage in rumor mongering, they should do it evenly for both Dem's and Repugs alike. There is a huge double standard here, and it continues, or are you really denying that?

I continue to be amazed that Hart gets more sympathy from independents and moderate republicans than some Dem's like you. At the time in '87, a Gallup poll found that 60% of the public felt that the media was unfair to Hart. What a pity that 60% wasn't in the party.

[SteppingRazor]

12. So what if she denied it?

Does that look platonic to you? Why do you insist on trying to rewrite history?

[Hart2008]

16. I think she would have known. n/t

[Hart2008]

19. I have a similar photo with my cousin. Does that prove incest?

People have a few drinks and lighten up. So what?

I do know that photo was stolen and is not the property of the National Enquirer.

The Miami Herald's sloppy reporting is not the final word here.

Remember 64% of the American public didn't agree with the Herald.

[goclark]

4. Excellent and don't forget Chimp's "date" and office wife

CondiLIEza!

The tabloids have been writing the story for months and the "MSM" has not picked up on it.

Chimp even called her "his date" on his last insulting trip and still no action against him.

:puke:

[Hart2008]

18. Hypocrisy!. MSM ignores stories about Bush and Cheney's affairs! n/t