PROSTITUTE ADMITS TO SEX WITH SEN. VIDDER

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.

Flynt produced parts of an Aug. 22 polygraph test that he said confirmed her account, but Ellis could provide no financial records, photographs or other evidence to support her assertion that the Louisiana Republican was a client during that time.

Vitter has denied those claims.

“I want the truth to be known,” Ellis said. “It was a pure sexual relationship. He would come in and do his business.”

Ellis declined to comment when asked if she was being paid or reimbursed for her statement regarding Vitter, but she later said she would appear in Hustler magazine in January.

She would not say if she is being paid for the layout.

“She looks … good,” Flynt said.

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.

The senator was not charged with a crime.

Vitter’s office did not immediately return a phone message Tuesday.

On Monday, Vitter spokesman Joel Digrado wouldn’t comment on the Flynt press conference. In an e-mail, Digrado said, “Sen. Vitter and his wife have addressed all of this very directly. The senator is focused on important Louisiana priorities like the water resources bill and the Iraq debate.”

DC MADAM OUTS 2ND ‘CLIENT’

Of course, they are victims of no one but themselves, but we now have the second outing of a prominent Washington figure who did business with Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s Washington prostitution ring (the first was Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias, who resigned in April). He is David Vitter, the Republican senator from Louisiana – a married man with 4 children and enough of a social conservative to get a perfect 100 rating from the National Right to Life Committee and the Christian Coalition and a 92 rating from Focus on the Family. It’s not the first time this has come up for Vitter, who had to fend off claims by a prostitute in Louisiana that he had an 11 month affair with her prior to the last election. His website makes note of the fact that he and his wife are both lectors at their church. And here is his response to being outed:

“This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible,” Vitter, 46, said in a statement, which his spokesman, Joel DiGrado, confirmed to the Associated Press.

“Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling,” Vitter continued. “Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there — with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way.”

I guess I’ll give him credit for not trying to BS his way out of it. But this is yet another example of a guy preaching “family values” during the day and leading a seedy double life outside the glare of the camera. Why this should surprise anyone is beyond me. The best part: this is only the beginning. Palfrey has now turned over 10,000 names and phone numbers to the news media and they’re gonna start dropping like flies. And I’m going to report them all with great glee and laughter.