Wife of 'Family Values', 'Marriage Protecting' Republican Senator Compared Herself to Lorena Bobbitt Back in 2004...
By Brad Friedman on 7/10/2007, 1:14pm PT  

Blogged by Brad from St. Louis...

As reported by Mother Jones on heels of revelations that "Family Values" Senator David Vitter (R-LA) was on DC Madam's list of clients...

In 2004, when Vitter was a congressman running for a seat in the Senate, Vitter campaigned with a promise of "protecting the sanctity of marriage." He went on to become a co-author of the "Federal Marriage Act" that sought to prohibit courts from interpreting same-sex marriage laws, and said of marriage, "I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one."

Thought we were done? Nope. Vitter once compared same-sex marriage to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The first line of his official biography reads, "David Vitter is dedicated to making life better for his young family and all Louisiana families."

But then, hypocrisy runs across Vitter's "young family." After extramarital affairs by Louisiana rep and now-you-see-him-now-you-don't Speaker of the House Bill Livingston were revealed, Vitter's wife was asked how she would react if her husband had been caught in an affair, like Livingston and Bill Clinton. "I'm a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary [Clinton]," she said. "If he does something like that, I'm walking away with one thing, and it's not alimony, trust me."

She also added, "I think fear is a very good motivating factor in a marriage. Don’t put fear down." But, as usual, Republicans' use of fear is clearly more of a bullying/control tactic (if normally an effective one) than anything else.

According to Vitter's statement last night to AP, he previously informed his wife about his "very serious sin in [his] past for which [he is], of course, completely responsible." And yet, we haven't noticed Vitter walking with a limp lately. Guess his wife was just kidding.

And credit where it's due. It was the folks at Hustler [DISCLOSURE: BRAD BLOG's creator and editor-in-chief, Brad Friedman, is a frequent contributor to that magazine, as well as Mother Jones for that matter] who found Vitter's phone number on Deborah Jeane Palfrey's list of clients and contacted him for comment yesterday afternoon, before Vitter then went running to AP for his confession in order to try and get out in front of the story.

Share article...