Mary Tutwiler

Much maligned Vitter: junior 'sin-ator' back in spotlight

by Mary Tutwiler

Poor David Vitter. He doesn’t even have to do anything salacious these days to have his name dragged through the mud over and over again. Yesterday, fellow Republican Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina whose name made the 2012 presidential watch list, tearfully fessed up to an affair with an Argentinian woman. The week before, Republican Sen. John Ensign admitted a fling with a member of his campaign staff.

Whose mug pops up at the top of The New York Times op-ed piece titled “How Do Politicians Survive Sex Scandals?” Louisiana’s own “serious sinner,”  whose name is forever linked with the D.C. Madam. While Democrats have done their share of straying, (New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, President Bill Clinton) they are not the party of “family values.”

Politicians like Vitter and Sanford have sanctimoniously indicted the dems for undermining marriage and family values while stepping out on the side themselves. And it’s their hypocrisy, more than the temptations of the flesh, that may cause their political undoing. Vitter has survived in office so far, but his seat, coming up for a 2010 election, is seen as vulnerable. Democratic U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon is gearing up for the race .

From coast to coast and circling the blogosphere, Louisiana’s junior “sin-ator” is reliving his moment of shame in the sun.