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A Democrat Senator goes to the Dominican Republic and hires a pair of hookers. After a few hours of fun, he doesn't pay them the agreed upon price, thus managing to stiff them both twice in a single transaction. What do you think - a game changing scandal?
The Democrat in question is Senator Bob Menendez of N.J. He is 58 years old and divorced. He is up for re-election next Tuesday. The most recent polls show that he holds a 14 point lead over his Republican challenger. The allegations against him have been raised by two prostitutes through their attorney and were published a few hours ago in the Daily Caller. Menendez himself has not yet responded to the allegations, but an aide, contacted yesterday, refused comment on the "false allegations."
Even assuming that these allegations are true, its not likely that this will be a game changer. True, client number nine, Gov. Eliot Spitzer, and Rep. Anthony Weiner, both Democrats, have been brought down by sex scandals in the recent past. But, both were married at the time, and in Spitzer's case, you had the yawning hypocrisy of him having spent years prosecuting organized prostitution in New York. With Weiner, it was the ignominy of him publicly broadcasting a picture of his woody across the internet. That was too much for even Democrats to swallow.
Spitzer and Weiner aside, Democrats have a track record of being incredibly forgiving of sex scandals. Bill Clinton is the poster child for Democrat tolerance. Before him, Barney Frank's squeeze was running a gay prostitution ring out of his apartment - forgiven. Gary Studds may not have read many books, but he did bend over a few pages in the halls of Congress prior to his reelection. Scandals of all sorts swirled around Ted Kennedy, but if his murder of Mary Jo Kopechne didn't stop his repeated reelection, no mere sex scandal would. For a more detailed history of Washington sex scandals of the past fifty years, see here.
Bottom line, this scandal, standing alone, isn't going to cause a 14 point swing among New Jersey voters between now and Tuesday. The only thing Senator Menendez could do to get himself in any appreciable trouble with his constituency over this allegation would be, if it is true, to lie and cover-up. But even then, it will be long after the election before a cover-up could be proven. Between today and next Tuesday, it will be just he said she said she said. Menendez will be safely ensconced in his seat for another six years before the issue will again arise.
This is not a game changer. All that said, Menendez would be wise to lay off the Viagra and for God's sake, learn the one lesson every government official in Washington should know by now - if you are going to hire foreign hookers, pay them their full asking price.
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Showing posts with label prostitution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prostitution. Show all posts
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Another Prostitution Scandal - This One Involving Senator Menendez of N.J.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Performing A True Public Service
Capitalism is far from dead on German college campuses. Heh. And to think that anyone would question their altruistic goals. There is a Sandra Fluke joke in here somewhere, I am sure.
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
The Genius Of Capitalism - An Alien Cathouse
Every 40 year old uber-geek in America take note. You can finally live out that fantasy you've had since your were 12 of spending some quality time with Princess Lea. Or if she is not your thing, there are certainly many other options. Klingon mating rituals anyone?
Brothel owner Dennis Hof and famed Hollywood Madame Heidi Fleiss are teaming up to open the new "Area 51" brothel in Vegas, where all of the girls will be playing the roles of various vixens of Sci-Fi fame. It is capitalism at its most creative. If they advertise this right, they'll have a line of geeks and trekies stretching from their door back into Texas. Not that I would ever go.
Oh, who am I kidding? If they get 7 of 9, . . . At any rate, let's just say that Hof and Fleiss need to sell stock in this one.
Okay, an exit question. What sci-fi quote should they put above the entrance? Somehow, "To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before" just doesn't seem right.
And in honor of Paul in Houston, whose mind is racing at the possibilities of exploring the flora and fauna of Planet Vulcan . . .
Update: Linked - Paul in Houston (where he combines note of an alien cathouse with the history of our strategic bomber force.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
A Truly Big Tent Republican Party
Meet our newest Republican, compliments of Michael Steele: . . . We can thank Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele for Daniels’s rightward turn. She was a registered Dem until the infamous Voyeur nightclub incident, she said. You just have to laugh. 
After learning of the RNC's fundraising at a lesbian bondage club, porn star Stormy Daniels was so impressed that she decided to switch parties from Democrat to Republican. Daniels, decidedly not from the social conservative wing of the Republican Party, is nonetheless a fiscal conservative with some very libertarian beliefs. This from Politico:
“While this decision has not been an easy one, recent events regarding Republican National Committee fundraising at Voyeur, an L.A.-based lesbian bondage-themed nightclub, finally tipped the scales,” she said in a statement. “For me, this spirit can be summed up in the RNC’s investment of donor funds at Voyeur. As someone who has worked extensively in both the club and film side of the adult entertainment industry, I know from experience that a mere $1,900 outlay at a club with the reputation of Voyeur is a clear indication of a frugal investment with a keen eye toward maximum return.”
She added: “As is the case with so many of my fellow Louisianans, I have been a registered Democrat throughout my life. But now I cannot help but recognize that over time my libertarian values regarding both money and sex and the legal use of one for the other [are] now best espoused by the Republican Party.”
(H/T Another Black Conservative)
Thursday, March 25, 2010
You Bring The Tickets & A Friend, I'll Bring The Lube
Heh.
It would appear that the Obama economy drove an unemployed die-hard Philly fan to resort to the age old barter system.
This is one of those posts that anything I could add would both be inappropriate for this blog and mark me as a pig of the worst sort . . . . sigh.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
WaPo & The Latest Prostitution Scandal
New York may have the gray lady, but in Washington, they have the Painted Lady.
You gotta love WaPo's new business model. It combines MSM reporting with our world's oldest profession. As one commentor at Michelle Malkin calls it, presstitution. They were organizing "a series of policy dinners" at the home of WaPo's publisher that were being marketed to lobbyists as a chance to "access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000." If you think about it, in the era of Obama, it certainly makes sense. I mean, we've been calling for the MSM and Obama to get a room for some time now.
Alas, it was not to last. With the news made public, WaPo has now cancelled its illicit assignations. There are a ton of disclaimers coming out of WaPo at the moment. I can't wait to see tomorrow's front page. Even Howard Kurtz is taking his paper to task over this one. As well he should. If there is any truth at all to this, WaPo's credibitily will utterly tank.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
A Trip Around The Anglosphere
Some of the most interesting links from blogs north of the border, down under and across the pond, all below the fold.
Art: The Battle of the Nile, Thomas Luny, 1834
North of the border:
The Covenant Zone revisits the inspiring story of Paul Potts, quoting the great poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling.
At the Halls of Macademia, police in small town Canada are publishing the names of those who solicit prostitution. The author waits to see the effects, noting that in small towns, public shaming is still a reality.
Blazing Cat Fur is ordering up a cup of "Rainforest Deforestation Expresso" Heh.
Ezra Levant takes stock of the battle for freedom of speech in Canada and finds it going fairly well. A very interesting post.
Five Feet of Fury blogs on one author who is using the Canadian legal system to charge Muslims hecklers and Canada’s largest book chain with racism.
Down Under
Dr. John Ray posts at A Western Heart on how freedom of speech and hate speech is viewed from the far left. Free speech for me, but not for thee.
Col. Robert Neville, possibly the most eclectic in thought of any blog on the net, posts on a wide range of topics in his post, "In the Ninth Circle of Hell with the MSM, Obama, Mohammed and the Mythical Moderate Muslims." He starts off by noting that the MSM puts their money where their biases lie.
Heh. KG tells the story of a real cat burglar.
MK posts on the conundrum facing U.S. troops in Iraq. There are just not enough bad guys around at the moment to keep it interesting.
From Aurora at the Midnight Sun, there are some utterly sick bastards in this world, and none moreso than those who abuse children or who find the abuse tolerable. The secular left really do wish to tear down all taboos. God help us if they succeed.
Across the Pond
An Englishman’s Castle blogs on the accuracy of a comparison between zealots who are fundamentally opposed to scientific experimentation and Nazi book burners.
At Biased BBC, they chronicle the hatred and disrespect of the chattering class at the Beeb for former PM Margaret Thatcher. If you step back in history a bit, you will find the same scenario played out as to Churchill.
Bishop Hill blogs on the many discontinuities in the global warming world, starting off with this nugget: "Professor Demetris Koutsoyiannis of the National Technical University of Athens published a paper in which he demonstrated that climate models have no predictive skill at regional levels, and there is no evidence that they work at larger scales either. This is a pity, as we are currently destroying our economies on the basis of the output of climate models."
Brits At Their Best takes note that "yesterday was the anniversary of the Battle of the Nile, when Admiral Nelson confronted Napoleon's fleet." They quote the beautiful poem "Casabianca" by English poet Felicia Hemans that pays homage to the bravery of the young French Admiral who fought with honor and died when his ship was destroyed.
Helen Szmanskey, blogging at the BrugesGroupBlog, comments on the failure of the DOHA trade talks, assessing that such large scale talks are doomed to failure, individual agreements are a better idea, but that the EU prevents its countries from taking that route.
As David Milliband sharpens the knife he plans to stick into the back of Gordon Brown, Burning Our Money ponders just what, if anything new, Milliband might have to offer. The conclusion – not much.
At a blog run by the Centre For Social Cohesion, Simon Cox posts on a charge by British playwright Simon Gray accusing the National Theatre of being afraid to run anything that might be deemed critical of Islam because of fears of violence.
Nick at Counting Cats in Zanzibar has his list of the worst films ever along with some stinging commentary. One of my few points of disagreement is on Hannibal.
David Thompson has a fascinating post on obfuscation and intellectualism. I love the opening quote: "The more sceptical among us might suspect that the unintelligible nature of much postmodern ‘analysis’ is a convenient contrivance, if only because it’s difficult to determine exactly how wrong an unintelligible analysis is."
With gas prices falling in the U.S., EU Referendum is wondering about the huge hike that occurred across the pond. "The US situation is now so very different from what we get from this side of the pond that it is germane to ask what on earth is going on."
The Heresy Corner looks at the polls and the intense unpopularity of Gordon Brown – and took stock that opinion polls showing that all of Labour’s alternatives fare worse than Brown with the exception of . . . Tony Blair.
Ireland’s Hibernia Girl has gotten some good reviews . . . and a prognostication that her heresy will end in a jail cell.
At Neuarbeit Macht Frei, a discussion of changes proposed to British criminal law that would insert gender criteria and overlay the foundational social relationship of marriage. This law looks nothing so much like modern social engineering by radical feminists. The House of Dumb gives his observations on it, calling it "Harriet Harperson's latest attack on the state of holy matrimony."
Mick Hartley has an interesting post on "liberalism" and Iran. As an aside, I would add that classical liberalism and our modern progressive who still call themselves "liberals" are worlds apart. Freedom of speech is an essential element of the former, and in many parts of the West, under significant attack from the latter.
At Persevere, a British commander charges that UK Muslims are fighting on the side of the Taliban against British troops.
At the Police Inspector’s Blog, discussion of how Labour is moving ever closer to that Orwellian reality.
The Pub Philosopher discusses the First Amendment right of freedom of speech from across the pond and hits on the common sense balance that his forebearers who wrote that document hit upon in their crafting. Basically, the First Amendment allows free speech "short of telling lies about individuals" – which are allowed but subject to libel suits – and "directly inciting violence" – which can be criminal. Thus, to answer his question, the rantings of Sheppard and Whittle would be constitutionally protected in the U.S. and, two, I find that much preferable to hate speech laws. Such laws are simply tools for social engineering by government.
From the Monkey Tennis Center – if you’re short on global warming alarmism, just make some up like they do at the BBC.
Posts About Our Allies:
There are some interesting posts on this side of the pond that discuss the UK and others. When one ponders the benefits of being a British colony, one should begin with a map about GDP distribution in the world today. Megan McArdle, at the Atlantic, pulls out the maps and writes: "When you see the map, it becomes radically apparent just how firmly Britain was the root of the Industrial revolution. With the lone exception of Japan, the darkest places on the map are either next to Britain, or former British colonies. And aside from Saudi Arabia and Chile, all the growth seems to spread outward from those Anglosphere points of infection. Nowhere, not even Saudi Arabia, has the income density of Western Europe and North America."
And at Bookworm Room, she has a fine post that discusses, in part, why the Industrial Revolution at the time rooted more firmly in the U.S. than in the U.K.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Real Prostitution
I posted here on the intersection between the relatively benign solicitation of prostitution by "Client #9," Eliot Spitzer and the much more malignant variety practiced by Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats involving FISA:
Spitzer got in bed with a prostitute and paid with his money. Our House Democratic leadership are far worse. They are in bed with trial lawyers and they are paying them with our money - and degrading our national security in the process.
This cartoon identifies Client #10.
Real prostitution . . . it is not a victimless crime.
(H/T Powerline)
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Of Federalism & Hookers
The federalization of criminal law is both a waste of resources and a gross assault upon the Constitutional concept of federalism - that the powers of the federal government are limited and there are spheres of governing that can and should be restricted to the states.
Yet the federalization of criminal law continues apace. The latest is legislation approved by the House to make prostitution a federal crime. How we get there is a bit of very well intentioned insanity.
The genesis of this legislation arises out the criminal enterprise of human trafficking – itself already a federal crime. Under federal laws, a person is guilty of trafficking if they hold someone else in "a workplace through force, fraud or coercion." In cases where human trafficking is found, it usually involves prostitution or forced labor. There are highly committed activists who are convinced that trafficking is evil and very widespread. The former is beyond argument, the latter is dubious:
The government estimated in 1999 that about 50,000 slaves were arriving in the country every year. That estimate was revised downward in 2004 to 14,500 to 17,500 a year. Yet since 2000, and despite 42 Justice Department task forces and more than $150 million in federal dollars to find them, about 1,400 people have been certified as human trafficking victims in this country, a tiny fraction of the original estimates. Some activists believe that if all prostitutes were considered victims, the numbers would rise into the predicted hundreds of thousands.
Read the article. So there you have it. If the facts do not bear out their beliefs, these activists are still too emotionally committed to acknowledge reality. So with full confidence in their motivation, they just change the underlying definitions. And a Democratic Congress says fine. Amazing.
The federal government has no business whatsoever inserting itself as a matter of federal law into the wholly local matter of prostitution. That is a purely local concern. Someone living in Washington should not be paying their tax dollars to prosecute a pimp and his girls in Florida just so an activist can sleep better at night. Raise your hand if you feel it more appropriate for the FBI to intestigate national issues, such as terrorism, rather than play vice cop.
Former Chief Justice Rhenquist spoke to precisely this issue when he said:
The pressure in Congress to appear responsive to every highly publicized societal ill or sensational crime needs to be balanced with an inquiry into whether states are doing an adequate job in these particular areas and, ultimately, whether we want most of our legal relationships decided at the national rather than local level."And from the same ABA bulletin in which the Rhenquist quote appears:
. . . [A]n increase in the volume of federal criminal cases, driven primarily by additional cases that could as well be tried in state courts, diminishes the separate and distinctive role played by federal courts. The role of the federal courts is not to simply duplicate the functions of the state courts. Although many of the newly federalized laws may be rarely used, their presence on the books presents prosecutorial opportunities that may be exploited at any time in the future. There are many other adverse implications of the federalization of criminal law that [a 1998 ABA Report] treats, including the impact for the federal prison system, local law enforcement efforts, on citizen perception of state and federal responsibility, and on the application of limited federal resources. Where federal and state laws exist for the same crime, a citizen prosecuted for a state crime is subject to a set of consequences appreciably different from one prosecuted for a federal crime, and sentencing options—including the length of sentence and location and nature of confinement—as well as opportunities for parole and probation, will differ greatly.
Read the memorandum here. If you want a snapshot of what happens when there is no real federalism, one need only look across the pond to the UK and the EU
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