Call Girl Probe

[ldzppln]

(ahem!)

Maybe we can contain all of the dirt that is undoubtabley going to come from this "probe" in one thread.

Anyone surprised the first "victim" is a loyal Bushie?

Bush official linked to call-girl probe
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
1 hour, 36 minutes ago

Randall Tobias, head of the Bush administration's foreign aid programs, abruptly resigned Friday after his name surfaced in an investigation into a high-priced call-girl ring, said two people in a position to know the circumstances of his departure.

It was Tobias' own decision to resign, according to one of the people, who said the issue came up only in the past day or so. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way.

Tobias submitted his resignation a day after he was interviewed by ABC News for an upcoming program about an alleged prostitution service run by the so-called D.C. Madam.

ABC reported on its Web site late Friday that Tobias confirmed that he had called the Pamela Martin and Associates escort service to have women come to his condo and give him massages. More recently, Tobias told the network, he has been using a service with Central American women.

Tobias, 65, who is married, told ABC News there had been "no sex" during the women's visits to his condo. His name was on a list of clients given to ABC by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who owns the escort service and has been charged with running a prostitution ring in the nation's capital.

U.S. officials would not confirm the information. A message left on Tobias' voice mail seeking comment was not returned.

Friday evening, the State Department put out a statement announcing Tobias' resignation, saying he "informed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today that he must step down as Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator effective immediately."

"He is returning to private life for personal reasons," the statement said.

Tobias held two titles: director of U.S. foreign assistance and administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development. His rank was equivalent to deputy secretary of state.

Rice named Tobias to head the two programs in January 2006, and on Wednesday was at the White House, where President Bush praised his efforts coordinating global AIDS relief. Tobias had been the White House's coordinator for global AIDS relief before taking the USAID post.

On Wednesday, Tobias attended a luncheon at the State Department with Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes and actress Angelina Jolie, who was in Washington pushing for more U.S. education aid for developing countries.

Before joining the administration, Tobias was a director and chairman of Eli Lilly and Co., the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company.

"The lives saved and made better around the globe by Randy's work at the State Department constitute a rich legacy on which he can look back with justifiable pride," department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday.

Tobias was the second public figure identified as a customer of Palfrey's service. Palfrey recently made good on her threat to identify high-profile clients, listing in court documents a military strategist known for his "shock and awe" combat theories.

Palfrey, 50, was indicted in March by a federal grand jury on charges of running the alleged call-girl ring from her home in Vallejo, Calif. She has denied the escort service engaged in prostitution.

Palfrey claimed she has 46 pounds of phone records involving clients. Efforts to reach her late Friday were unsuccessful. Montgomery Blair Sibley, an attorney who represents Palfrey in non-criminal cases, declined to comment.

In court records, prosecutors estimate that her business, Pamela Martin and Associates, generated more than $2 million in revenue over 13 years, with more than 130 women employed at various times to serve thousands of clients at $200 to $300 a session.

Palfrey had threatened to sell phone records that would identify 10,000 clients to pay for her criminal defense, but a federal judge ordered her not to release them. Palfrey, however, gave them to ABC News before the order took effect.

Prosecutors have accused Palfrey of trying to intimidate potential witnesses by exposing them publicly.

[ldzppln]

oops! wrong forum.

Anyone with the power to do so, please move this to the correct forum (you know, "the republicans caught with prostitutes even though they're the morally superior folk" forum).

[ammobj]

Anyone surprised the first "victim" is a loyal Bushie?


Ok, so he works in the Bush administration....SO!!!!!

You anti-Bush liberals simply amaze me. You can overlook anything and everything done by Dems....but heaven forbid someone connected to Bush so much as stubs their toe.

Amazing . . . . .

[herbhub]

This must be the Monica Lewinsky story from the Bush administration.

[Bill Shaw]

$2 million, over 13 years... isn't that like $400 a day? Doesn't sound like a whole lot of sex going on.

...and 46 POUNDS of phone records to make it happen. This is starting to sound like my girlfriend

At least he got a meeting with Angelina before he stepped down.

[P562045]

So I am supposed to act all shocked that the two main parties act like each other?

I seem to remember the name Dick Morris for some reason.

Now out of 10,000 clients not one of them is a democrat?

Something tells me that is highly unlikely.

Let's see on one side we have Macaca, Foley, Iraq, Big Oil, call girls; and when is the other side going to start having some scandals? As I said at the very start the two parties do tend to act like each other even though neither side would ever readily want to admit to it.

[-mmm-]

Originally Posted by Bill Shaw

$2 million, over 13 years... isn't that like $400 a day? Doesn't sound like a whole lot of sex going on.

So....he was married???

Originally Posted by ammobj

Anyone surprised the first "victim" is a loyal Bushie?


Ok, so he works in the Bush administration....SO!!!!!

You anti-Bush liberals simply amaze me. You can overlook anything and everything done by Dems....but heaven forbid someone connected to Bush so much as stubs their toe.

Amazing . . . . .

But arent liberals suppossed to be corrupt and criminal and amoral? Thats what Ive been told for years. How is it a newsworthy story if one of them does it given this stereotyping?

It is nice that Bush is no different than any other politician though. In 2000 he ran on cleaning the White House of the ethical mess of the previous administration, and here its just another case of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss".