TPMDC

Vitter Refuses To Say Whether He Broke The Law In Prostitution Scandal

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) hearing testimony from oil executives.

At the final Louisiana Senate debate last night, incumbent David Vitter (R) dodged repeated questions about whether he broke the law by soliciting prostitutes in Washington, D.C. and Louisiana.

“[Y]ou can look back, you can continue to write stories in the media about it,” Vitter told moderators. “That’s your decision. It’s a free country. I looked the voters of Louisiana in the eye. I spoke to them sincerely. I think they heard me and I think they understood me. And now I’m looking forward, I’m not looking back.”

Vitter tried to refocus the attention on his Democratic rival Charlie Melancon who’s made issue of Vitter’s scandals in hard-hitting TV ads.

“Is that part of your Melancon family values, Charlie?” Vitter asked.

“David, you never had family values,” Melancon replied. “You’ve demonstrated that to America quite keenly.”

The New Orleans Times-Picayune today endorsed Vitter.

2010 elections, Charlie Melancon, David Vitter, LA-SEN, Senate '10
Brian Beutler

Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.

Editor & Publisher

Josh Marshall

Managing Editor

David Kurtz

Senior Associate Editor

Paul Werdel

Associate Editor

Sara Libby

Assistant Editor

Igor Bobic

Reporters

Brian Beutler

Carl Franzen

Sahil Kapur

Eric Kleefeld

Eric Lach

Nick Martin

Evan McMorris-Santoro

Ryan J. Reilly

Benjy Sarlin

Front Page Editor

David Taintor

Poll Editor

Kyle Leighton

News Writer

Pema Levy

Video Editor

Michael Lester

Polling Fellow

Tom Kludt

Video Fellow

Clayton Ashley

Publishing Fellow

Christopher O’Driscoll

Research Interns

Michael Brooks

Publishing Intern

Miles Read

General Manager & General Counsel

Millet Israeli

VP, Ad Sales

Mary Cadwallader

Bob Edmunds

Bruce Ellerstein

Waldo Tibbetts

Manager, Ad Operations and Sales Support

Versha Sharma

Deputy Publisher

Callie Schweitzer

Director of Technology

Eric Buth

Designer/Developer

Ni Mu

Matthew Wozniak

Tech Fellow

Dennis Cahillane