David Vitter

David Vitter
United States Senator from Louisiana
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2005 Serving with Mary Landrieu
Preceded by	John Breaux
Succeeded by	Incumbent (2011)
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 1st district
In office May 29, 1999 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Bob Livingston
Succeeded by	Bobby Jindal
Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from the 81 district
In office 1992–1999
Preceded by	David Duke
Succeeded by	Jennifer Sneed
Personal details
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Wendy Baldwin Vitter
Alma mater	Harvard University; Oxford University; Tulane Law School

David Bruce Vitter (born May 3, 1961) is an American Republican politician, currently serving as the junior U.S. Senator from Louisiana. He was formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives, first elected in 1999, to represent the suburban First Congressional District of Louisiana. In July 2007, Vitter was identified as a client of "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey's escort service in Washington, D.C.

Early life, career, and family

Vitter was born in New Orleans to Audrey Malvina St. Raymond and Albert Leopold Vitter. He received a B.A. from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1983; a B.A. from Oxford University in 1985, as a Rhodes Scholar; and a Juris Doctor from the law school of Tulane University in New Orleans in 1988. He was a lawyer and a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1992 to 1999, when he entered the U.S. House.

Vitter and his wife Wendy, a former prosecutor, have three daughters, Sophie, Lise, and Airey, and a son, Jack.

House of Representatives

Elections

Vitter won a special election to Louisiana's 1st Congressional District in 1999, succeeding Republican Congressman Bob Livingston, who resigned after an adultery scandal. In the initial vote on May 1, 1999, former Congressman and Governor David Treen finished first with 36,719 votes (25 percent). Vitter was second, with 31,741 (22 percent), and self-styled "white nationalist" David Duke finished third with 28,055 votes (19 percent). Monica L. Monica, a Republican ophthalmologist, had 16 percent; State Representative Bill Strain, a conservative Democrat, finished fifth with 11 percent; and Rob Couhig, a Republican lawyer and the owner of New Orleans's minor league baseball team, had 6 percent. In the special election runoff on May 29, Vitter defeated Treen, 61,661 votes (51 percent) to 59,849 (49 percent).

In 2000 and 2002, Vitter won re-election with over 80 percent of the vote in what has become a safe Republican district.

2002 gubernatorial race

In 2002, Vitter was preparing to run for governor in 2003, with the incumbent, Republican Mike Foster prevented by term limits from running again. But in June 2002, shortly before the Louisiana Weekly ran a story about Vitter's alleged relationship with a prostitute, Vitter dropped out of the governor's race, saying he and his wife were dealing with marital problems.

United States Senate

2004 election

In 2004, Vitter ran to replace Democrat John Breaux in the U.S. Senate. Former state Senator Daniel Wesley Richey, a Baton Rouge political consultant, directed Vitter's grassroots organization in the race, with assistance from Richey's longtime ally, former state Representative Louis E. "Woody" Jenkins of Baton Rouge, himself a defeated U.S. Senate candidate in 1978, 1980, and 1996.

During the campaign, Vitter was accused by a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee of having had a lengthy affair with a prostitute in New Orleans. Vitter responded that the allegation was "absolutely and completely untrue" and that it was "just crass Louisiana politics."

On November 2, 2004, Vitter won the Louisiana senatorial jungle primary with 51.0 percent of the vote. The field of opponents including two major Democrats, then Seventh Congressional District Congressman Christopher John, who got 29.4 percent of the vote, and state Treasurer John N. Kennedy (no relation to the Massachusetts Kennedys), who got 15.1 percent.

Vitter was the first Republican in Louisiana to be popularly elected as a U.S. Senator. The previous Republican Senator, John S. Harris, who took office in 1868, was chosen by the state legislature, in accordance with the process used before the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution went into effect in 1914.

Committees

• Committee on Environment and Public Works
  • Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health
  • Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security, and Water Quality (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure
• Committee on Foreign Relations
  • Subcommittee on African Affairs
  • Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs
  • Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Democracy and Human Rights (Ranking Member)
• Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
  • Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, Insurance, and Automotive Safety
  • Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard
  • Subcommittee on Space, Aeronautics, and Related Agencies (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security
• Special Committee on Aging

Political actions and positions

Pro-life stance

Vitter has won praise from pro-life groups for his stance against abortion. In 2001, he co-authored legislation to restrict the number of physicians allowed to prescribe RU-486, a drug used in medical abortions. Vitter said, "The legislation is about protecting women's health" and criticized the FDA for "hurriedly" approving the drug. Several Democratic politicians and pro-choice groups condemned the bill, characterizing Vitter as an "antichoice extremist". The bill died in committee.

In January 2008, Vitter proposed an amendment to prohibit the funding of abortions with Indian Health Service funds except in the case of rape, incest or the life of the mother is at risk. Vitter's amendment passed the Senate. If enacted into law, it will hold future presidential administrations to an executive principle first crafted in 1982 by the Ronald Reagan White House.

Military recruitment in high schools

In May 2001, Vitter authored an amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act, a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which required all secondary schools receiving federal funding to permit US military recruitment on school grounds and to provide the name, home phone number and address of every student enrolled to military recruiters, unless the student (or the student's parent) specifically opts out.

In February, 2007, Democratic Representative Michael M. Honda proposed the Student Privacy Protection Act of 2007 to change Vitter's amendment from requiring high schools to provide military recruiters with students' personal information unless they explicitly opt-out to requiring the student's explicit consent first. According to the Congressional Quarterly, Vitter stands behind the current provision. He stated, if changed, families who supported military recruiting may miss out if required to opt-in.

School board prayers

In 2005 Vitter introduced a resolution supporting prayer at school board meetings in response to an earlier district court decision that the Louisiana's Tangipahoa Parish practice of opening meetings with Christian prayers was unconstitutional. The bill died in committee. Vitter later reintroduced the resolution in January 2007 after a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court concluded that Christian prayers were unconstitutional but was undecided whether nonsectarian prayers were allowed. In July 2007, the full Fifth Circuit dismissed the case because of a lack of standing. The school board subsequently resumed prayer evocations but opened it to diverse community religions. As of January 2008, Vitter's bill has been referred to committee with no scheduled action.

Hurricane Katrina

On August 30, 2005, immediately after Hurricane Katrina, while New Orleans' flood levels were still rising in all areas, Vitter made an inaccurate statement that received notable media attention:

In the metropolitan area in general, in the huge majority of areas, it's not rising at all. It's the same or it may be lowering slightly. In some parts of New Orleans, because of the 17th Street breach, it may be rising and that seemed to be the case in parts of downtown. I don't want to alarm everybody that, you know, New Orleans is filling up like a bowl. That's just not happening," said Vitter on August 30.

In early September, Vitter said that he would give "the entire big government organized relief effort a failing grade, across the board." He said that state and local governments shared in the blame as well. Vitter's actions during Hurricane Katrina are described in historian Douglas Brinkley's May 2006 book, The Great Deluge.

In September 2007, Vitter announced that he got "a critical concession" from the White House that decreased Louisiana's obligations for hurricane recovery by $1 billion. However, the White House said that was false.

Gun politics

Rated A by the National Rifle Association, Vitter has been a consistent champion of gun rights. In April, 2006, in response to firearm confiscations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Vitter was the Senate sponsor of the Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act, to prohibit federal funding for the confiscation of legally held firearms during a disaster. Later, Vitter included the provisions of the act in an amendment to an appropriation bill for the Department Of Homeland Security. The bill became law in September, 2006 with the amendment modified to allow for the temporary surrender of a firearm as a condition for entering a rescue or evacuation vehicle.

In February 2008, Vitter, along with Senators Larry Craig and Mike Crapo, blocked the confirmation of Michael J. Sullivan as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives saying Sullivan supports "burdensome regulations" on gun owners and dealers and is "overly aggressive" enforcing gun laws. An editorial writer for The Boston Globe wrote that Vitter's position was "unreasonable"; the laws Sullivan sought to control are those commonly used in crimes: stolen or purchased on the black market. On the other hand, gun rights advocates say that many gun dealers have lost their licenses for harmless bureaucratic errors.

Abstinence education

Vitter advocated abstinence-only sex education, emphasizing abstinence while excluding issues involving birth control and safe sex. He said, "Abstinence education is a public health strategy focused on risk avoidance that aims to help young people avoid exposure to harm...by teaching teenagers that saving sex until marriage and remaining faithful afterwards is the best choice for health and happiness." According to Focus on the Family, Vitter was one of three conservative senators that convinced Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg to withdraw an amendment that would have restricted abstinence education to programs deemed to be "medically accurate".

Same-sex marriage

Vitter believes strongly that marriage is a sacred vow between a man and a woman. In 2003, Vitter proposed to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same sex marriages. In 2004, he said, "This is a real outrage. The Hollywood left is redefining the most basic institution in human history...We need a U.S. Senator who will stand up for Louisiana values, not Massachusetts’s values." In June 2006, he said "I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one ... I think this debate is very healthy, and it's winning a lot of hearts and minds. I think we're going to show real progress." In 2006, he told The Times-Picayune, “I’m a conservative who opposes radically redefining marriage, the most important social institution in human history.”

In October 2005, at a Lafayette Parish Republican Executive Committee luncheon, Vitter compared gay marriage to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which came through the same geographical areas. Vitter said "It's the crossroads where Katrina meets Rita. I always knew I was against same-sex unions."

New Orleans public housing

In September 2007, The Times-Picayune reported that Vitter and the Bush administration opposed a provision of The Gulf Coast Housing Recovery bill which required that every public housing apartment torn down be replaced with another form of low-income housing on a one-for-one basis. The administration testified that there was not sufficient demand for public housing units, a position contested by several senators. Vitter stated it would recreate "housing projects exactly as they were", isolated and riddled with crime. However, Mary Landrieu, the Louisiana Democratic Senator, said the intent was to make certain there were affordable places for working class people who returned. The bill requires that demolished housing projects be replaced with mixed income communities which local housing advocates say is different from the massive public housing developments that Vitter is referring to. However, the bill does not include a ban on large-scale projects. The city housing authority is planning on replacing 4,000 low-income units with mixed-income projects providing a smaller inventory of low-income units. In November, 2007, more than two dozen political action, faith-based and human rights organizations delivered a petition with more than 130,000 signatures asking that Vitter reconsider his position. In December 2007, Vitter killed the bill in committee. Some housing advocates charge that Vitter is stalling the bill in order to keep Landrieu from claiming a legislative victory one year in advance of her reelection, a charge Vitter denies, saying Landrieu was refusing to negotiate.

Federal Water Bill

Vitter helped write the Water Resources and Development Act for flood-control, hurricane-protection and coastal-restoration projects including $3.6 billion for Louisiana. He called it the "single most important" legislation for assisting Louisiana with its recovery from hurricane Katrina. President Bush vetoed the act, objecting to its cost. Congress overrode his veto, enacting the bill.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

In September 2007, during hearings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Vitter expressed serious doubts about the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea treaty concerning issues of U.S. sovereignty echoing an array of anti-UN conservative groups against the treaty including The National Center for Public Policy Research, The Heritage Foundation and the Center for Security Policy. The treaty, which sets up countries' jurisdiction over their coasts and ocean including exploration and navigation rights, is supported by the Bush administration, a majority of the United States Senate, the Pentagon, the State Department and Navy as do a coalition of business and environmental groups. The committee approved the treaty 17-4, with Vitter voting no.

Louisiana Family Forum earmark

In September, 2007, Vitter earmarked $100,000 in federal money for a Christian group, the Louisiana Family Forum, known for challenging evolution by means of "teaching the controversy" which promotes intelligent design while discrediting evolution. According to Vitter, the earmark was "to develop a plan to promote better science education". Though the Louisiana Family Forum is largely forbidden from political activity due to its non-profit status, The Times-Picayune alleged the group had close ties with Vitter. However, they have criticized Vitter for his support of Rudy Giuliani.

On October 17, 2007, the liberal organization People For the American Way, along with several other groups asked the Senate to remove the earmark. Vitter later withdrew it.

Children's health insurance program

In September 2007, Vitter opposed an increase of $35 billion for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the national program to provide health care for children from families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private health insurance. He said he preferred that private health insurance provide the needed care and deemed the bill as "Hillarycare", a reference to the 1993 Clinton health care plan created by Hillary Clinton which proposed universal health care. The increase passed the Senate, 67 to 29 but was later vetoed by President Bush.

Immigration

Vitter has been a staunch opponent of amnesty for illegal immigrants. In June 2007, he led a group of conservative Senators in blocking the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 that would have granted legal status to 12 million undocumented workers. The bill's defeat won Vitter national attention as it was supported by President George W. Bush, John McCain, and Ted Kennedy, among others. Vitter characterized the bill as amnesty which the bill's supporters denied with Bush accusing the opponents of fear mongering.

In October 2007, Vitter introduced an amendment withholding Community Oriented Policing Services funds from any sanctuary city which bans city employees and police officers from asking people about their immigration status in violation of the Illegal Immigration Act. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, in opposition to the amendment, said these cities do not want to inquire about someone's immigration status if they report a crime, are a victim of domestic violence or get vaccinations for their children. According to Fox News, one senator remarked that the amendment would withhold funds for prostitution enforcement which was a problem for Vitter because of the D.C. Madam controversy. The amendment failed to pass.

In November 2007, Vitter introduced a bill requiring banks to confirm that customers were not illegal immigrants before providing them with banking or credit cards.

Family planning funding

In October 2007, Vitter introduced an amendment barring all funds to health care providers and Planned Parenthood that provide health services (such as contraceptives, Pap smears, breast exams and tests for STDs) in addition to abortions. Federal law bars any funding to directly finance abortions. Vitter argued that the funds are used for overhead costs that benefit the abortion services. The amendment failed to pass. Following the rejection, Vitter and others urged the Senate to pass a similar bill introduced by Vitter in January 2007.

2008 presidential endorsement

In March 2007, Vitter announced his support for Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid and served as his southern regional campaign chair. In July 2007, The New York Times reported that the chairmanship was in doubt due to the D.C. Madam controversy but his job was ultimately secure though "quietly marginalized". After Giuliani dropped out in January 2008, as of February 2008, Vitter has not endorsed another candidate.

D.C. Madam controversy

In early July 2007, Vitter's phone number was included in a published list of phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates, a company owned and run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, also known as the "D.C. Madam", which is accused by the U.S. government of being a prostitution service. Hustler magazine identified the phone number and contacted Vitter's office to ask about his connection to Palfrey . The following day, Vitter issued a written statement:

This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible. Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there - with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way .

The statement containing Vitter's apology said his telephone number was included in phone records dating from his days as a member of the House of Representatives phone records show that Vitter's number was called by Palfrey's service five times, the first on October 12,1999, and the last on February 27, 2001 . Two calls were placed while House roll call votes were in progress.

As background, several news outlets reported that in May 1999, Vitter replaced Congressman Bob Livingston after Livingston resigned due to an adultery scandal .Vitter said about Livingston's decision to resign, "It's obviously a tremendous loss for the state. I think Livingston's stepping down makes a very powerful argument that Clinton should resign as well and move beyond this mess", referring to the Monica Lewinsky scandal of President Bill Clinton . In 2000 his wife Wendy Vitter commented on thesame scandal:

"I'm a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary. If he [Vitter] does something like that, I'm walking away with one thing, and it's not alimony, trust me!"

Wendy was referring to the John and Lorena Bobbitt incident where Lorena cut off her husband's penis and to Hillary Clinton remaining with Clinton . Despite her 2000 statement Wendy remained with Vitter after his July 2007 sex scandal.

On July 10,2007, Jeanette Maier, the "Canal Street Madam", alleged that Vitter was a customer on more than one occasion in the 1990s, when Maier was identified by federal prosecutors as operating a $300 per hour brothel . The Times-Picayune reported that "Maier offered no evidence or documents to support her claim" .

Maier said that Vitter "was not a freak. He was not into anything unusual or kinky or weird," and that he favored one prostitute in particular, Wendy Cortez

, the name of the prostitute with whom Vitter had been accused, during his 2004 campaign of having had a lengthy affair.

Vitter denied that allegation during the campaign .

On July 12, Cortez told The Times-Picayune that Vitter was "a regular customer" during his time in the state legislature, but that they "did not have a romantic relationship." . On September 12, 2007, The Times-Picayune reported that the woman, whose real name was Wendy Ellis, had passed a lie detector exam.

Vitter is unlikely to face criminal charges due to the statute of limitations. Vitter apologized to GOP senate colleagues but avoided the press who repeatedly attempted to talk to him .

On November 13, 2007, the attorney for Palfrey served Vitter with a subpoena to force him to testify at a November 28, 2007 hearing about whether an act of prostitution occurred with a Palfrey escort and when . The following week, the judge in the case canceled the hearing. Palfrey's attorney indicated he planned to subpoena Vitter to testify at her 2008 criminal trial .

After Senator Larry Craig was admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee for acting improperly after his arrest for lewd contact in an airport bathroom in February 2008, the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington questioned why the committee had not taken similar action against Vitter .

Reaction

While the Louisiana state Republican Party offered guarded support national Republicans offered forgiveness . The liberal magazine, The Nation, predicted that the Republican Party would be in a "forgiving mood" pointing out if Vitter did step down, Democratic Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco would likely appoint a Democrat to take Vitter's place until a special election took place, thus increasing Democratic control over the Senate . Margaret Carlson of Bloomberg News agreed, saying that since there is a Democratic governor in Louisiana, "they were afraid if they slapped around Vitter too much, that seat would go Democratic".

Marianne Means, a syndicated columnist for Hearst Newspapers, reported that Republican senators gave Vitter a "loud standing ovation" which she characterized as hypocritical by contrasting this with the Republican attitude toward President Clinton's marital infidelity The applause came after Vitter privately apologized to his colleagues .

Republican Senator Sam Brownback told Bloomberg Television on October 5, 2007 that Vitter should be censured by the Senate. He said, "I think you could see something like that taking place. If you look at the actual crime itself and the discussion across the country — and as a Republican — this is bad" .

Vitter was also criticized by the University of New Orleans College Republicans for holding a second press conference about the scandal at the same time that fellow Republican Bobby Jindal formally kicked off his campaign for governor. They called on Vitter to resign after that action, accusing him of putting himself before the good of the party .

In December, 2007, an editorial in The Advocate of Baton Rouge, Louisiana claimed the Vitter had lost influence due to the controversy . In the same month, Time magazine listed the controversy as one of the top ten awkward moments of 2007 .

External links

• United States Senator David Vitter, Senate site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Vitter.org - website of the Vitter family Maintained by David Vitter's brother Jeffrey Vitter
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — David Vitter profile