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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Network refuses to name clients of 'DC madam'
2007-05-07
There was an almost audible sigh of relief in parts of America's capital this weekend after a TV network said it would not reveal the identities of scores of clients of the alleged "DC madam" because they were not well enough known to be "newsworthy".
IOW: Would have been more damage to the Donks than the Trunks. Or perhaps there was an ABC exec in the mix . . . .
ABC News said Aha! that, the execs immedately confiscated the evidence upon its arrival at the office and having locked themselves in a room with it ploughed through 46lbs of phone records, it had discovered that among the clients of Deborah Palfrey's alleged prostitution ring were senior business executives, Nasa officials and at least five military officers.
And among the women working for Ms Palfrey - who ran the network in Washington DC from her home in California - were an instructor at the US Naval Academy and a legal secretary at a prominent law firm. The secretary was suspended after telling her bosses she worked for Ms Palfrey "for spa money".
Now that's saucy! How about a 'burger Friday night? And bring the Little Bo Peep outfit this time, eh? You'll never know when that might come in handy.
Ms Palfrey, 51, faces federal charges of racketeering and money-laundering associated with prostitution. She claims she offered only "fantasy sex" and she was not breaking the law.
Standard Reply #36 for those in the trade, I'm sure.
The only government official known to have been a client was Randall Tobias, at the State Department. He resigned after being confronted by ABC.
Just couldn't resist, eh? So did he use a condom?
Another client named was Harlan Ullman, a columnist for the Washington Times and a senior adviser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
I'm shocked. Awed, really.
Posted by:gorb

#14  I've had good relations with call girls and prostitutes during my younger years mostly. No one was hurt and everyone was a winner... and It never stopped me from having girl friends and a wife either!

lotsa booze and sex -->releases bad spirts, It is good medicine for horned dawgs!
Posted by: RD   2007-05-07 22:43  

#13  Disposable ? Why didn't I think of that ?
Posted by: wxjames   2007-05-07 20:13  

#12  prostitution should be legalized to protect the women and tax their services

Legalizing prostitution, like legalizing abortion, will be a net loss for women because all it will do is validate the use of women by certain men (we generally call them "pigs" in these parts) as disposable sex objects.
Posted by: Mike   2007-05-07 18:00  

#11  I hate the double standard and think prostitution should be legalized to protect the women and tax their services. I think Palfrey is smart and there may be a little more to it for ABC to air this, other than to humiliate innocent people. I heard Dick Morris was one she wanted called to trial, hinting that contracted services went back to '93 and included a very prominent private citizen. Also, it wasn't a protitution crackdown per se, but came out of the Abramoff and Cunningham corruption investigations.
Posted by: Danielle   2007-05-07 14:57  

#10  One gal was a professor

I guess what I meant by this is that chances are she doesn't have a huge host of mental problems that may lead to suicide no matter what. Nobody knows for sure, but I think it would be over the line when people with well-developed mentalities are pushed over the edge by this.

And no, as a society I don't think we should help this along, but I don't think we should be actively harming people either, which I think the present system does. It will be there in one form or another regardless of you opinion, so why not at least clean it up? The cost to society is too great. If somebody's spouse finds out they haven't been coming home for dinner, that's where you don't have to help. But don't harm. What a mess.
Posted by: gorb   2007-05-07 14:15  

#9  Iowahawk:

Dear Former Subscriber:

We still have something that you can't get at your precious internet: investigative reporting. Did you know our reporters recently obtained a secret database containing a list of over 20,000 clients of the notorious "Quint State Madame" Destinee Hills? And did you know what phone number we found on that list? 746-555-7314. Does it ring any bells? It should. It's your cell phone.

So may I suggest renewing with the Claxon-Ledger today? For the low, low price of $499.95 per month you'll get money saving coupons and our promise that this information doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

Yours in News,
Skip Olbermaier, Acting Publisher
Posted by: Pappy   2007-05-07 10:14  

#8  Zen don't pick on the nice lady professor. We all make our compromises.

I didn't bother to watch 'cos I figgered it was a big fat nuthin'. But it *would* be fun to see the internal ABC memos on this thing, would it not?
Posted by: Seafarious   2007-05-07 10:14  

#7  No names? Then who the hell cares?
So your blockbuster story turns out to be a non story? Crack investigative unit you've got there ABC...
Posted by: tu3031   2007-05-07 10:05  

#6  One gal was a professor

"You want flies with that?"
Posted by: Zenster   2007-05-07 08:22  

#5  It's a lot like abortion. It's not something society should promote, it's not something society will eradicate. So society makes it illegal and puts the burden on the woman. If Ms Palfrey is going to be put through the wringer like this, then so should the Johns.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2007-05-07 07:37  

#4  Sharia should eliminate the prostitution problem. Who needs prostitution when for practical purposes rape is 'legal.'
Posted by: Glenmore   2007-05-07 07:37  

#3  The last two or three paragraphs are the most distressing to me. One gal was a professor and divorced mother of two. She commited suicide because she was outed as a prostitute. Shouldn't need to happen. Some day people will look back at this attitude of shame as crap. It didn't change who she was or how she did her job. If it did, it was because of the shame thing.

There's a reason this is the world's oldest profession. And it will probably be the last, too. I don't see why people need to try to make it go away. Legalize it, regulate it, and tax it. Be done with it.
Posted by: gorb   2007-05-07 07:30  

#2  National Review:

Washington Post today, as posted in the Corner:

In one case, a man who told the escort service he was a White House economist turned out to have engaged in résumé inflation. He actually works across the street as an analyst for the Office of Thrift Supervision, Ross said.

"One guy swore to me up and down it couldn't have been him, he loves his wife," Ross said. The man, a well-known member of a conservative think tank, was right: Palfrey, Ross said, had repeatedly misdialed his number by confusing the 202 and 301 area codes.


Unbelievable. Here's the transcript from 20/20 with no mention from Ross of his errors. And what's worse, he kept silent prior to the airing of his segment because without his two top outs, a Bush admin. economist and the head of a conservative think tank, nobody would have watched
Posted by: Mike   2007-05-07 06:28  

#1  Mr. Smith Heidi Fleiss Goes to Washington.

Posted by: Zenster   2007-05-07 04:35  

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