Wednesday, July 11, 2007

DC Madam customers practice their apologies

Gentlemen (and maybe ladies) - get your apologies ready!

Turns out that Larry Flynt and Deborah Palfrey have teamed up to match those released phone records to politicians....

Larry Flynt is ready to conduct a "showdown of moral hypocrisy" as the moral crusader politicians just can't seem to keep it in their pants, no matter how hard they rant.

"If these guys want a showdown on the issue of morality, we're going to give it to them," said Dan Moldea, an investigative journalist and author who worked with Flynt in 1998 and is back on the job today. Moldea was given a head start on Palfrey's records, which were posted on the Internet on Monday, and he's the one who connected Vitter to the old telephone number on the madam's list. (Her Internet website crashed repeatedly Tuesday under the strain of other gumshoes.)

Moldea now is plowing through the rest. So far, he said, he has identified lots of average Joes, or Johns, whose names he doesn't intend to reveal. "They are safe," he said. The guys with the bull's-eyes on their backs are politicians who preach one thing and practice another....

"I would say the hypocrisy of this town is going to be deeply and fully illuminated by what's going to happen with these records over the next couple of weeks," he added. The titillating sideshow in some ways is proving something of an antidote for a town worn down by weighty debates over war and peace.