http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/04/david_vitter_gets_face_time_wi.htmlDavid Vitter (and the rest of America), Blessed By Pope Benedict
To see Pope Benedict XVI in person at the White House was the climax of a truly blessed (and just plain lucky) week for Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who dodged the ultimate bullet by not having to testify in the trial of the D.C. Madam.
Vitter and his wife, Wendy, were spotted Wednesday among the thousands of guests who gathered on the south lawn of the White House to sing "Happy Birthday" to the pontiff on his 81st birthday and receive his blessing for America.
For Vitter, a devout Catholic, seeing His Holiness in the flesh was the culmination of one gigantic sigh of relief.
On Tuesday, the Louisiana Republican was spared the threatening embarrassment of having to explain why his telephone number showed up not once, not twice -- but six times -- on the phone records of the so-called D.C. Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, when he was a House member. Palfrey's defense rested its case without calling any witnesses.
Palfrey wasn't as blessed. She was convicted Tuesday of running a prostitution ring, not a "high-end erotic fantasy service" as she had claimed. (Her defense attorney had subpoenaed Vitter to testify in hopes of -- get this -- bolstering Palfrey's claim that her employees only provided sexual fantasy, not actual sex, for money.)