Shock And Phwoar: Deborah Jeane Palfrey Defrocks Randall Tobias And Harlan Ullman
YOU can almost hear the clearing of throats and the straightening of ties as an alleged Washington DC Madam prepares to blow the whistle on dozens of high-profile clients.
Deborah Jeane Palfrey has been accused of satisfying high-flying peccadilloes in the DC area for 13 years. That’s a lot of policy wonks, advisers and officials.
Already two careers have been put on hold. Randall Tobias, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, resigned last week after he admitted using the service for massage. Tobias denied that any sex took place. As the top foreign aid adviser in the State Department, part of his job was administering grants that helped fight Aids while requiring grantees to take measures to prevent prostitution.
The second casualty of the Madam scandal so far is Harlan Ullman, a Defense Department employee who coined the phrase “shock and awe.” Perhaps Ullman had Palfrey’s “high-end erotic fantasy service” in mind when he dreamed it up.
The question occupying the press corps now is who will be next?
Palfrey claims not to know the names of most of her clients. She ran her alleged network of over 130 call girls from her home in California. So she handed over her client phone book to ABC News in the hope the network could track them down. More resignations could follow on Friday when ABC broadcasts its 20/20 news show.
On its website, ABC teases that among the names are “a Bush administration economist, the head of a conservative think tank, a prominent C.E.O., several lobbyists and a handful of military officials.”
Palfrey needs her clients now more than ever. She’s hoping they will back up her claims that although she ran an adult service, no sex took place and she did not break any laws.
Her lawyer, Montgomery Blair Sibley, claimed in court yesterday that Palfrey’s clients used the service for fantasy and role playing, not sex. He told the New York Sun: “This was adult sexual fantasy which stayed within legality, much like going to a strip club. You can pay an escort to come to your home, get naked, and get a massage, and you haven’t broken any laws, assuming you stay on your stomach.”
Quite how this will go down with the wives and girlfriends of Washington power players is anyone’s guess. The “I stayed on my stomach the whole time” defence probably will not appease many of them.
Posted: 1st, May 2007 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
