Watchdog group files bar complaint against Sen. Vitter over prostitution involvement

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) has been an outspoken critic of the community group ACORN since several of its employees were recently caught in an undercover video giving advice on tax evasion to conservative activists posing as leaders of a prostitution ring.



Though he skipped the Senate vote to bar federal funding for ACORN, he has since called on the Department of Homeland Security to rescind a fire-safety grant to the group, requested it be investigated for racketeering, and introduced an amendment that would prevent bailout fund recipients from giving it any money.

The irony, of course, is that Vitter himself has been involved in a real prostitution ring, confessing to a "serious sin" after his phone number was found in a published list of phone records of the so-called "D.C. Madam's" prostitution service in Washington in 2007. Vitter has also been accused of purchasing the services of prostitutes in New Orleans.

That irony did not go unnoticed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit watchdog group. This week CREW filed a bar complaint with the Louisiana Office of Disciplinary Counsel for violating the state's rules of professional conduct for lawyers. Under both D.C. and Louisiana law, it is a crime to solicit for prostitution, while under state rules for lawyers it is professional misconduct to "commit a criminal act, especially one that reflects adversely on the lawyer's honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer in other respects."

"Sen. Vitter's zeal to see ACORN criminally investigated for offering advice in setting up a prostitution ring reminded me he has yet to be held accountable for his own role in a prostitution ring," said CREW's Executive Director Melanie Sloan. "While ACORN's conduct is indefensible, so is Sen. Vitter's and what is good for the goose is good for the gander."

After Vitter initially confessed to being involved in prostitution, CREW filed a complaint against him with the Senate Ethics Committee, which dismissed the matter last September without taking any action. CREW deputy director Naomi Seligman said at the time, "The Senate Ethics Committee has once again done what it does best: nothing."

During the trial of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called "D.C. Madam" whose services Vitter solicited, one of the 13 prostitutes forced to testify was a former Navy supply officer and Naval Academy Instructor who lost her Navy job because she violated its conduct standards.

"It is a shame the Senate has no such standard of conduct," said Sloan. "It will be interesting to see what sort of standard the Louisiana Disciplinary  Board chooses to apply."

Palfrey was convicted last April of racketeering and money laundering and committed suicide the following month.

Vitter's staff has hit back by pointing out that Sloan is a former Democratic Senate staffer. But the implication that CREW is a partisan political outfit is contradicted by the group's release last month of its annual list of the most corrupt members of Congress --  eight out of 15 of whom are Democrats.

The bar complaint is not the only ethics trouble Vitter is facing at the moment: In August, the Louisiana Democratic Party filed a Senate Ethics Committee complaint against him after he disparaged Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) and other Democrats at a town hall meeting. Melancon is challenging Vitter for the Senate seat, and the complaint targeted Vitter's use of the taxpayer-funded town-hall meetings as campaign events.

(Official photo of Sen. Vitter from the Senator's website)