Some Rise by Sin, Some by Virtue Fall

I do not think less of the junior senator from Louisiana, Republican David Vitter, because his telephone number appears on the list provided by the D.C. Madam to the press. Well, let me qualify that. Why didn't you use a pay phone, David? Sheesh. I think it behooves all of us to become intimately acquainted with our shadow selves, as Jung would have it, and thus to temper our quick condemnation of the human failings of others. He was away from his wife and kids, back home in Metairie, and Sen. Vitter, understandably exhausted from the hard work of trying to steer anti-gay legislation through an intractable, libertine Congress, took a walk on the wild side. Just because Vitter got jiggy with it one night (or ten, or twenty) does not mean his efforts at "defense of marriage" are hypocritical. In one sense, if you think about it, it just proves marriages need all the defense they can get, not just from gays who want to try what Vitter has obviously had some troubles with, but from pimps and madams who cater to our weakness.

I admit I was a little disappointed in Vitter, not just for being such a maroon that he used a telephone with his name on it, but because he won't talk about it now that he's made peace with his wife and God, apparently the only two people he thinks have a rooting interest in this thing. What a killjoy. His defense of marriage advocacy is so boring it makes your bones itch to think about it. But down and dirty nights in D.C.? Finally Vitter, who looks a lot like a choir boy grown fat on too much jumbalaya, would have something fun to talk about.

I wonder if he realizes it was God who got him into this jam in the first place. As a little Catholic, he sat in church on those sweltering Bayou days listening to the bombastic condemnation of perfectly normal human tendencies. You don't have to be Sigmund Freud (much as it might help) to see that's where the tantalizing urge to pimp his night originated. He just had to try it.

Oh well. Let's face it. His 100% rating by the Christian Coalition will be the first casualty of his fall from grace. And, of course, he won't be leading any more floor fights for a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. And if he ever uses the word "moral" in a sentence again, everyone will be rolling in the aisles, and I'm not referring to Pentecostals. And since he was something of a vapid Ken-doll in the first place (he used his own telephone number?), he's probably on the home stretch of his tenure in Washington anyway. It won't be long before he'll be spending a lot more time in Metairie, and while God might be okay with it, it's hard to like his long-term chances with his wife. Some marriages need more help than the Constitution can provide.