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For someone who's always found himself on the moral high ground, David Vitter (R-LA) must be surprised to have landed in so much hot water.

"I'm a conservative who opposes radically redefining marriage, the most important social institution in human history,"Vitter wrote to the New Orleans Times-Picayune last year Vitter's self-styled family man image — see our post with Sophie Vitter's campaign video for daddy — is impressive in theory. Practice has just proved a little more difficult.

Monday morning, Mr. Family Values got a call from his social opposite: Larry Flynt. It turns out that the Hustler publisher got wind of the ABC News report on Deborah Jeane Palfrey's business doings — namely, her role as the "D.C. Madam." Since 1993, she's run Pamela Martin & Associates, an escort service catering to the District's Do-Not-Tells. The company's former website touted it as "Washington's premier adult service."

And Vitter's not the first one to agree. In April, Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias resigned after confirming ABC's Brian Ross that he had patronized Palfrey's shop. The scandalous tie immediately sent Tobias off the political radar, and as DanaMilbank reported Wednesday, the same appears true forVitter . Was he at the Senate vote to confirm a federal judge? Absent. Public Works subcommittee meeting, where he's the ranking Republican? Absent. Katrina rebuilding hearing? Absent. Party lunch with Cheney? Absent.

In fact, the closest Vitter came to being present since this all came out was an emailed press release he sent to the AP and Times-Picayune. The Washington Post has the release in full; it's conveniently missing from Vitter's website. So where has Vitter been?

Making reparations with the Mrs., it seems. And for good reason. Despite their announcement today that they are working together through this grievous sin, in 200, she toldNewhouse News Service that when it comes to her marriage, she brooks no trysts. "I'm a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary," she said. "If he does something like that, I'm walking away with one thing, and it's not alimony, trust me."

So we can rest assured that at least one person won't let him off the hook, but Veracifier wonders who else might be on it. Palfrey's been threatening to sell her list of former clients - apparently 10,000 around the Beltway for whom anonymity is still bliss - and thinks they should share in whatever punishment is dolled out for the prostitution scandal.

"Why am I the only person being prosecuted?" she asked TIME over the phone. "Sen.Vitter should be prosecuted."

If the clients face punishment, shouldn't the call girls too? And who are they, anyway?

According to the court, each girl was at least 23 years old. She would have two years of college under her belt and a full time job or class, presumably to keep the conversation — when it was happening — interesting. According to advertisements for the job, her height and weight also had to be proportional. (Palfrey apparently wouldn't be responsible for another Monicagate.)

What's really interesting, though, is where she advertised for these would-be employees: college newspapers, like at the University of Maryland. Read The Diamondback's send up of the whole ordeal here.

Each girl would charge about $300 per session, sending half of the profits back to Palfrey and keeping the rest for herself. In its 13 years of business, Palfrey made about $2 million, which evens out to 6,600 sessions, during which every girl made approximately $150. Palfrey said she kept several hundred girls on staff, so if we estimate she had 500 call girls who worked those jobs fairly evenly over time, they all made, on average, just shy of $2000.

While we're more concerned with the fact that for all their trouble, these girls only made about 18% of tuition at Maryland every year, FOX has found the truly serious problem: since we're not talking about Monica, this is all wildly inappropriate. "This raises an important question about a news organization,"Hannity and Colmes ask. "Should they be outing her clients at all?" Maybe we can send them a dictionary open to the page where "Journalism" sits.

- Raleigh-Elizabeth Smith