This morning I heard on NPR that David Vitter is running (fortunately behind the Democratic candidate) for Governor of Louisiana.  Mention was again made of his trying to outrun questionable involvements with prostitutes.

Some years ago when I was back in New Orleans, I was appalled to see billboards about that Republican person running for Congress.  I’d heard about those moral scandals and was disgusted that Vitter apparently made it into public office anyway.  At the time, I found those rumors of heterosexual improprieties laughable and unsurprising.  (Politics in that state are famous for such, including a former candidate for Vice President of the US.)

Then and now I found those rumors laughable considering my personal experience with that politician back in the middle 70’s in Washington DC.  Vitter was then a young legislative intern, and I was a gay courtesan, not a prostitute, mind you, because I didn’t charge.  Like Violetta (in the opera “La Traviata”), I entertained my admirers in a grand Victorian house at Logan Circle with lavish dinners and spectacular parties.

One evening I somehow wound up in the company of the rather attractive intern from Louisiana.  Though details are somewhat blurry after these 40 years, I recall that we went to a concert somewhere out on Connecticut Avenue.  Then we took a dark walk together in a park-like setting, where Vitter demonstrated his amorous intentions.

While I’d vaguely noticed it at the concert, in that close physical proximity I was nauseated by his rank body odor, as foul as any skunk.  Without commenting, I quickly and graciously declined my suitor’s advances and sent him on his fetid way.

To my relief, Vitter never approached me again, but it was an experience I could hardly forget.  Even now the memory turns my stomach.  While the governorship of Louisiana is no longer any skin off my nose, for the sake of the prostitutes he has allegedly consorted with, not to mention his poor wife, I certainly hope he has solved that personal hygiene problem.

I only mention this encounter because Vitter’s political hypocrisy still stinks to high heaven.