CNN

ALL Major Cable Nets Cut Away When Pelosi Talks Jobs Over Weiner (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | June 16, 2011, 12:29PM

The DC media's jaw-dropping obsession with the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal will peter out when the New York congressman officially resigns this afternoon. But there's no better illustration of how this story came to consume the press than the video below.

Democrats had been prepared to up the pressure on Weiner to resign Thursday, but not before House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi held her weekly press availability in a large studio in the basement of the Capitol Visitors Center.

Her conference began minutes after the news of Weiner's impending resignation leaked, and so reporters and cameras scrambled to what otherwise would have been a fairly routine press event. Indeed, because Dems are in the minority, it's not uncommon for Pelosi events to be under-attended by members the media. Not this time.

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LA-SEN

Vitter Shellacks Melancon

Brian Beutler | November 2, 2010, 9:35PM

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) and Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA)

How's this for a new standard of conduct in politics? A "values" Republican can weather a prostitution scandal in a conservative state as long as it occurs a couple years before his re-election bid in a GOP wave year.

If the Louisiana Senate race was a referendum on Democratic rule, it was also a referendum on Sen. David Vitter (R). He joined the House in 1999 as a values conservative on the right flank of the Republican party, replacing the disgraced Bob Livingston. Rumors swirled around Vitter for years, but he nonetheless moved to the Senate in 2005 replacing the retiring Democrat John Breaux. His reputation was shattered in 2007, though, when he was discovered to have solicited prostitutes in both Washington DC and Louisiana.

Tonight, however, he defeated Democratic Rep. Charlie Melancon in one of the most vicious campaigns of the 2010 cycle.

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David Vitter

Melancon Ad: Vitter Used Taxpayers' Money To Pay For Prostitutes (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | October 28, 2010, 9:47AM

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)

No more beating around the bush. In a brutal new segment running on network and cable television in Louisiana through election day, Rep. Charlie Melancon makes a final, daring pitch to voters that Sen. David Vitter's sex and abuse scandals make him unfit to serve.

"Our tax dollars pay David Vitter's salary, and he used it for prostitutes," the ad's narrator says. "Our money paid for Vitter's serious sin. Phone calls to prostitutes during official votes and tax dollars to help defend an aide who violently abused his girlfriend. In return, we got a disgraced senator ranked among the least effective in Congress."

Melancon hasn't exactly been shy about discussing Vitter's past. It's an issue he's highlighted around the state, and in a two minute that ran on cable TV earlier this cycle. But his camp's long been aware that it has to be fresh on voters' minds if Melancon's going to win.

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Jeff Perry

Victim Of Illegal Strip Search Publicly Castigates GOP Candidate

Brian Beutler | October 20, 2010, 3:00PM

Congressional candidate Jeffrey D. Perry (MA)

A woman who was assaulted as a teenager by a police officer under the supervision of a current Republican Massachusetts House candidate is speaking out.

''He had to hear me screaming and crying. Instead of helping me, Jeff Perry denied anything happened,'' said Lisa Allen, in a statement to the Boston Globe.

Perry is the GOP hopeful in Massachusetts' 10th Congressional District. Almost 20 years ago, an officer under his command named Scott Flanagan confessed to and was convicted of assaulting Allen and another girl. Perry initially denied that any assault occurred, but thereafter quickly disappeared from the force.

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Larry Flynt

Larry Flynt Renews Million Dollar Offer For Dirt On Vitter, Other Politicians' Sexual Affairs (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | October 4, 2010, 2:25PM

In the course of lambasting Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) for his repeated dalliances with multiple prostitutes, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt renewed his million-dollar offer to anybody who can prove they had extra-marital sex with Vitter or any high-ranking official.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE SCANDALS]

In so doing, he also previewed what he says will become the next big political sex scandals.

"We know we've got a gay senator," Flynt said on CNN yesterday evening. "We just like to see him come out of the closet. And I think we'll be exposing that in the next few months if he doesn't."

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NV-SEN

NRSC Posts Parody 'Real Harry Reid' Website After Reid Posts Real Angle Site

Eric Kleefeld | July 8, 2010, 4:14PM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. candidate Sharron Angle (R)

The NRSC is firing back at Harry Reid's reposting of Sharron Angle's old website -- by posting a fake Harry Reid website as a parody.

After she won the Republican primary a month ago, Angle's campaign took down most of its website, and later replaced it with a relaunched version that toned down her right-wing positions. But the Reid campaign saved the old version, and put up a website called "The Real Sharron Angle," reproducing the old content. Then last Friday, the Angle campaign sent them a cease-and-desist letter, alleging violation of copyrights and that the site was Angle's intellectual property. In response, the Reid campaign briefly took down the site -- then made some slight modifications, and put it right back up again. And in response, Angle is still threatening legal action.

Now the NRSC has come out with "The Real Harry Reid," taking the current layout and overall look of Reid's website, but with headlines about high unemployment and the national debt.

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David Vitter

Larry Flynt To David Vitter: Donate Your Diapers To Gulf Relief

Megan Carpentier | July 2, 2010, 10:14AM

Senator David Vitter (R-LA) and Hustler Magazine founder Larry Flynt

Political gadfly and Hustler publisher Larry Flynt has an ingenious plan for stopping the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and it doesn't have anything to do with bombs, relief wells or devices patented by Kevin Costner. Larry Flynt thinks that BP should use diapers -- David Vitter's diapers, to be precise.

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Charlie Melancon

Melancon Holds Fire On Vitter Sex Scandal

Brian Beutler | June 21, 2010, 4:02PM

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) and Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA)

It's still early in the campaign, but -- at least for now -- Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA) is keeping his thoughts on David Vitter's past sex scandals to himself.

We asked Melancon in an interview this afternoon whether he'd force Vitter to explain his prostitution scandal to voters. Melancon mostly kept his powder dry.

"What you say you are is what you should be," Melancon said. "I think that the people of this state realize that he's not been honest with them. If he's not honest with his family and his friends, what makes anybody think he's gonna be honest with the voters and the people of this state."

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John Ensign

Nevada GOP Congressman: 'Wounded' Ensign Is 'Cause For Concern'

Zachary Roth | April 8, 2010, 1:19PM

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)

It looks like Nevada Republicans' patience with Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), amid the senator's sex-and-lobbying scandal may be wearing thin.

"The fact we have a wounded junior senator, yeah, it is cause for concern," Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV) said in a TV interview.

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