WASHINGTON -- The president of the Christian conservative Family Policy Network sent Sen. David Vitter, R-La., a letter Monday calling on him to follow the lead of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., and resign rather than leave Republicans and conservatives open to charges of hypocrisy.
Times-Picayune archiveA conservative Christian group is urging Sen. David Vitter to resign over his past connection to a call-girl operation.
Vitter admitted to a "serious sin" in 2007 after his phone number was found in the 2001 client records of a woman accused of running a prostitution ring. Vitter was a member of the House of Representatives when the calls were made.
Weiner announced his plans last week to resign after first lying about and then admitting to "inappropriate" Internet communication with various women.
"There are a lot of people that I think are committing outright hypocrisy and are forced to do so as long as he (Vitter) remains in office," said Joe Glover, the president of the Family Policy Network, based in Forest, Va. "I don't think the senator should put those folks in the untenable position of having to pragmatically defend his presence in the Senate."
Glover noted, for example, that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, had called on Weiner to resign, but had also contributed to Vitter's 2010 re-election campaign.
"I think their credibility is at stake," said Glover. "I know a lot of times in Washington, pragmatism reigns supreme, but there are some things that are more important than politics and integrity is one of those things."
Vitter's office had no immediate comment.
In an article that will be posted on the group's website Tuesday, policy analyst Alexander Mason writes that: "Almost four years ago, a very similar scandal to Weiner's was unfolding on our television and computer screens. Louisiana Senator David Vitter, who fashions himself as a Christian, pro-family, conservative Republican, had just been exposed as a client of a high-profile prostitution ring in our nation's capital. Vitter, who had once called for President Clinton's resignation over the Lewinsky scandal, was now mired in his own tawdry sex scandal. So what did Republican leaders do about Senator Vitter? They let him off the hook."
"Furthermore," Mason writes, "the public's perception of Vitter as a sleazy, hypocritical Christian only served to tarnish the name of Christ among unbelievers."
Glover said Vitter had been "a reliable conservative vote" on issues of importance to his network, which he said has a mailing list of about 25,000 people, though fewer than 500 in Louisiana. He said they had not called for Vitter's resignation before because, after the scandal broke, they assumed he would either resign or be rejected by Louisiana voters.
Instead, Vitter cruised to a second term by 19 percentage points after a campaign in which Democrats often reminded voters of the sex scandal.
Glover noted that the pressure on Weiner to resign did not come from his home district, and that if Vitter is to be forced to resign, the pressure will have to come from Republicans and conservatives nationally. He said the article is only the opening salvo in that effort.
"This isn't going to be a one-shot deal," Glover said.
Until now, calls for Vitter's resignation have come from liberals, most vocally from Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, though, asked about it, Bill O'Reilly on Fox said, "I don't think Vitter should be there, absolutely not."
However, in a column Sunday on Townhall.com, conservative radio talk host Kevin McCullough said both Maddow and O'Reilly are wrong, and that, "Vitter had confessed to his wife, members of his church, and others of his behavior years previous to the revelation," and received forgiveness, and that "the American people felt they got a straight story from Vitter, and everyone felt there was much Weiner had not "fessed up to."
The Family Policy Network is probably best known for its confronting attendees at gay pride events with, as they put it on their website, "the truth that Jesus Christ can set them free from homosexuality" through the network's "Hope for Homosexuals" project.