Prostitution Scandal Has Washington In New ‘Shock and Awe’
The resignation of a senior US State Department official has put the spotlight on an alleged Washington call-girl ring and pending trial of its madam who claims powerful men were among thousands of clients.The capital has been riveted by the chance influential men may now be caught with their trousers down since Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 50, dubbed the DC Madam in local media, was arraigned in federal court on charges of operating a Washington prostitution service for 13 years until her retirement in 2006.
Palfrey has denied she ran a prostitution ring. Her company, Pamela Martin and Associates, was simply a high-end adult fantasy firm which offered legal sexual and erotic services across the spectrum of adult sexual behavior, she said.
Palfrey contends her escort service provided university-educated women to engage in legal game-playing of a sexual nature at 275 dollars an hour for a 90-minute session, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
But Palfrey has also hinted that she has a record of the phone numbers of thousands of the more than 10,000 customers her company served which could embarrass more than a few of the US capital’s high-fliers.
Friday, the State Department announced that Randall Tobias, the embattled head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), was resigning for unspecified personal reasons.
However broadcaster ABC News, which said Palfrey had provided it with a record of the numbers of calls to her private cell phone, reported late Friday that Tobias had stepped down after it spoke to him about his alleged calls to her number.
Before taking the USAID post, Tobias was President George W. Bush’s first global AIDS coordinator and drew criticism for his emphasis on partner fidelity and abstinence, instead of condom use, as a means to prevent the spread of the AIDS virus.
Previously he was chairman, president and chief executive of the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, and also, from 1997-2000, chairman of the board of trustees at Duke University.
His now-reported links to a firm accused of prostitution have raised more than a few eyebrows.
Palfrey’s California home and other assets were seized by US tax authorities in October, and Palfrey has been trying to raise funds for her defense through an appeal on her website.
“I’m sure as heck not going to federal prison for one day, let alone four to eight years, because I’m shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever,” she told ABC.
Her lawyer, Montgomery Blair Sibley, told Fox television last month: “The statistical certainty (is) that there are a fair number of high-profile people who used this service across the government and private sector in the metropolitan DC (District of Columbia) area.”
And The Washington Post reported Saturday that local jitters appeared to be multiplying.
It said Sibley claimed that “he has been contacted in the past few days by five lawyers asking whether their clients’ phone numbers are on Palfrey’s list of 10,000 to 15,000 customers from 2002 to 2006.”
That may have something to do with the fact that Palfrey already has named her first name, as it were, on her website, where she has posted a court document from April 12 in which she alleges formal US naval commander Harlan Ullman was a “regular customer” whom she needs to subpoena.
Ullman, with James Wade, developed the military doctrine of “shock and awe” used by the US government in its invasion of Iraq. According to one definition, it is shorthand for rapid dominance based on the use of “overwhelming decisive force,” “dominant maneuvers” and “spectacular displays of power” to subdue the other side.
Earlier this month Ullman told CNN: “The allegations do not dignify a response,” and referred any other questions to his lawyer.
Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse.
I hope this is over with Quick!
Finally a way to get rid of a few asshole politicians. I hope she names every god damned holier-than-thou prick in Washington. Might be the only way to end the war.
The rules for the ruling class have always been different than those of us being ruled,
l have always thought prostitutes should be taken out of the hands of criminals and put into the hands of politicians who know what to do with them.
Everyone repeat after me: One does NOT call a $275 escort service for a massage.
Professional massuses are available, even in Washington, for about a third of that cost.
I can’t wait to see who else gets nabbed in this scandal.
This could really get ugly. Unfortunately, sex is much more titilating to the public than issues of war and global warming. I’m afraid this distraction will pull focus and energy from the serious problems that are just now being addressed by the Congress.
Isn’t it interesting that Viagra is covered by insurance programs, but abortions and birth control are falling off the legal radar. Makes you wonder what pre-empting nature, these old guys with the blue pill, has cost as they get all rip roaring to go… to war again.
Sex sells and gets media attention. I have no doubt this woman will name anyone on her list. If this is what it takes to get rid of a few more of the self righteous in D.C., then that’s fine by me. Who knows? Maybe even Rove is on the list.
You learn something new everyday. I wasn’t aware that Republicans engaged in sex. I thought they were all born of virgin births.
“Palfrey contends her escort service provided university-educated women to engage in legal game-playing of a sexual nature at 275 dollars an hour for a 90-minute session, The Washington Post reported Saturday.”
What was their major……The Psychology of Adult Sexual Fantasy and Erotic Behavior? How much money did the university-educated women get out of that $275 fee?
“But Palfrey has also hinted that she has a record of the phone numbers of thousands of the more than 10,000 customers her company served which could embarrass more than a few of the US capital’s high-fliers.”
Yeah, no shit! Is it any wonder that the massive amount of U.S. legislation favors the wealthy over average citizens? The perks are nice in DC, wouldn’t you say? The problem is that eventually, YOU WILL BE CAUGHT!
I’d hold off on the hosannas.
Lest we forget, Democrats can get swept up in this as well as Republicans.
And, given the puritanical hypocrisy of the American people, the Dems could lose bigger for getting “massaged” than the GOP for their multitude of real crimes.
If I recall, Clinton was impeached for lying about a blowjob.
Leading Dems can’t even bring themselves to say the “I word” in re: BushCo and their offenses.
RickinSF April 29th, 2007 6:14 pm
“I’d hold off on the hosannas.
Lest we forget, Democrats can get swept up in this as well as Republicans.”
Rick: The only way we’re going to eliminate the pious, hypocritical blow-hards and buffoons is to expose them. Personally, I don’t care if they are Republicans or Democrats. The bottom line is this: They don’t belong in Congress as representatives of the people, if it’s not the people they’re representing.
That phone list and the stories in the McMedia are all that’s keeping the madam alive at this point. Ask Monica Lewinsky.
“Personally, I don’t care if they are Republicans or Democrats.”
I would agree, but I would also not like to see the venerial exploits of our representatives used to distract from the more urgent issue of destroying the GOP.
Isn’t it high time to
a) get more realistic about the habitual personal loneliness and emotional needs of people in very lonely high-power jobs
b) realize how sex is used as temptation and subsequent blackmail against any politicians or other leaders?
So much of our politics is blackmail, this explains many blockades better than any attempt at logical reasoning. But few people ever realize what nasty games are played “up there”, and the media are part of the blackmail dirt, rather than in any way serving the public interest.
Uh … I really hate to bring this up to all the Hillary hating liberals out there, but to paraphrase Palfrey’s attorney, “The statistical certainty is that it is unlikely she made use of this service.” Wouldn’t that be a gut-busting bit of irony?
Groan! But seriously folks, this could be just the thing to send the whole ‘08 election process into the sewer … the American public’s favorite point-of-view on politics.
It would make it all about “moral character” again - not the kind that keeps a politician from instigating, tolerating or enabling genocide against others, but the kind that could tilt the election to some amorphous creature (like GWB) who could win on the fact that he has been “redeemed” by the Lord.
Don’t forget that all politicians are prostitutes and the people they screw are us as they play along with all the K Street gang. Getting $ from Haliburtun etc. with hardly a whimper about the lousy job they have done in Iraq. The FDA with their record, New Orleans still a mess-the list just goes on and on.
If you focus on X (in this case, sex, what else) you have less time and fewer resources to focus on Y (corruption, war, global warming, etc…), so of course the more the corporate media focuses on this, the more evidence they provide of the decline of the US media.
But, if the media must spend time on this, they should at least answer the question: “If you put her list with Jeff Gannon’s list, do you get every single high-ranking figure in the Bush administration?”
From article:
“Before taking the USAID post, Tobias was President George W. Bush’s first global AIDS coordinator and drew criticism for his emphasis on partner fidelity and abstinence, instead of condom use, as a means to prevent the spread of the AIDS virus.”
I hope they out them all. People are dying from AIDS by the tens of thousands per day in Africa and this Bush boy advocates ineffective international policies on the basis of morals he does not even believe in or practice himself.
He is absolutely disgusting to me. The American people have a right to know the kind of hypocrites who get appointed on their tax dollars into powerful positions. And what they then spend their six digit salaries on.
Prostitution should be legalized anyway, just on public health and women’s rights issues.
But I’m sure Tobias officially “opposes” that as well.
90% of American teenagers infected with HIV do not know that they are infected.
I guess condoms are o.k. for Tobias (since literature states that most prostitutes require their customers to use them), but American teenagers or people dying by the tens of thousands in Africa don’t have a right to know about these things.
What a pig.
This is SEVEN MILES SOUTH OF SORDID!!!!
Given the blather we have heard about abstinence it was only a matter of time before this behavior came to light.
I agree with those that say they hope that this drivel “my word” does not distract the Congress from the needs of the people of this Nation and other Nations of the World. The needs are monumental.
“Shock and Awe” – Where have I heard that before … it sounds so familiar … “Shock and Awe”… Maybe it was “Aw Shucks” … no, it was definitely “Shock and Awe” …
What makes any one think this will even be in the news tomorrow. I predict that nothing will come of this and in two days you will not hear another word about this event . . . . Someone above mentioned “Ruling Class” . . . well folks you are about to see what that means.
After all where did this article come from . . . The French Press. “Nuf said . . .
The responses so far seem to want revenge. But back when Congress was initiating impeachment proceedings against Clinton, most of us were saying that his personal and sexual behavior were none of our business. Let him do his job and judge him on that.
As much as I’d like to see Republicans get nailed over a sex scandal, I still feel that their sexual bahavior is none of my business. There are plenty public statements, congressional votes, signing statements, financial documents and evidence of the Bush administration and Congresspeople (on both sides of the aisle) committing or being complicit in war crimes and violations of both international and domestic law. The party in congressional power ought to pursue prosecutions against these people as their oath of office requires instead of hoping that these politicians get caught paying for an escort to come and fulfill their sexual fantasies.
If we go down that latter path then we encourage and condone the Religious Right’s message that sex is bad and that family falues (maybe not ours…?) and character are what’s most important in an elected official. I certainly DO want people to be of high character in elected office, but we are displaying our own less-than-honorable character by vigorously going after politicians over what should be personal matters.
Scratch just below the surface and you’ll find the politicians, Dems and Repubs, are all one in the same, Shysters. Our nation needs Statesmen/women, politicians are prostitutes. I hope her list gets published. Betcha bucks it won’t!
If Tobias wanted the ministrations of comfort women in Ms. Palfrey’s stable, that’s his right and business. But don’t pontificate to others around the world about Abstinence and Fidelity then wield the big stick when they cannot conform. Tobias, Ullman, Bennett, Swaggart, Foley, Gingrich — American Hypocrites all. The world is well aware.
It’s not the same as Clinton because having an extra marital affair is not illegal, but paying a prostitute for sex is.
Also, saying that this is none of our business is just another way of (however unwittingly) buying into the notion that prostitution should be kept under the table.
It most certainly IS our business when public elected or appointed officials engage in illegal activity that they pay big money for on big salaries footed for by the taxpayer. Or when they defend policies that so deeply affect others’ lives, and on the basis of reasoning they don’t believe in for themselves.
So, I say, let’s deal with. Publish the damn list. There’s no reason why that has to be a distraction from all else going on in the country. Let it be a call to redress important issues in health education, AIDS, legalizing and regulating black market industries like prostitution.
Opening the foul doorways of secrecy help create a more open and sane society where we care LESS about what’s going on in politicians’ bedrooms, and where politicians are LESS able to play the religious hypocrisy card off public ignorance while people by the tens of thousands die or get sick or spread disease even more because of their irresponsibility.
Interesting that it was printed in the Frence press where they care much less about what goes on in their candidates’ bedrooms or marriages. They don’t print it because they think it’s “bad.” They print it because they know that this is one of the biggest jokes of American pretention. Notice, as just one example, that in the French presidential campaign, their spouses don’t consider themselves part of a package deal the way it is here - where voters access the couple. Neither of the prime contenders’ spouses are even interested in moving into the “presidential palace.” There is a very different “head” in french politics.
And one I think that’s much healthier. Only in America are we obsessed with such matters, and in that obsession, don’t want to look at it at all.
Look at it, America.
Publish the list!
And then, get over it, and finance real health education for teenagers, real family planning and health in third world nations, and real legislation on the one of the oldest professions in the world.
One can dream, can they not … (or move to Sweden)
Indeed, our nation should be jumping up and down at the opportunity.
How many of you have enough money to spend 275. per hour, at your leisure, and regularly, on even a real doctor?
Over 45 million Americans without health coverage, 9 million of whom are children, how many worried about social security?
And some of these rascals are ELECTED by you to serve YOU temporarilty, but with a permanent retirement account, full health, including dental and vision — and enough money to flush on high priced prostitutes?
IMHO, it is insanity not to out every single damn one of them.
And make them accountable and answerable to the American people.
Also.
What everyone reading that story should be thinking about, in addition to how little Congress is doing for them for their health plans, their children’s, and their social security is this: organized crime. And everything that goes along with it.
Publish the list.