Senator Vitter Gets Down to Business

Senator David Vitter is just trying to do his job.

The media are making that difficult.

WASHINGTON -- Louisiana Sen. David Vitter returned to the Capitol Tuesday, dodging camera crews where possible and refusing to take reporters' questions about a sex scandal that sent him into seclusion for a week.

The first-term Republican said he wanted to resume his normal Senate schedule, but that proved difficult as news crews camped outside his office and chased him down hallways. Vitter, 46, has acknowledged "a serious sin" after his Washington telephone number was found among those called several years ago by an escort service that prosecutors say was a prostitution ring.

Vitter and his wife Wendy told reporters Monday in Metairie, La., that their marriage is strong and the senator plans to continue his political career. Vitter said other allegations made against him are untrue, apparently referring to a New Orleans woman's claim that he had frequented her brothel in the 1990s.

...On Tuesday morning he did not appear at his office in the Hart Senate Office Building, where a gaggle of cameras and journalists waited. But he did attend a commerce subcommittee hearing on "air services to small and rural communities" in the nearby Russell building.

When Vitter left, while the hearing continued, reporters chased him down a hallway until he turned and calmly addressed them. He said he and his wife already had made "very straightforward statements about all of this. And I look forward today to being back at work, really focused on a lot of important issues for the people of Louisiana, like what we were discussing in the committee hearing."

Gee, you'd think the guy drove his car off a bridge, left a young woman to die in the submerged vehicle, and failed to report the accident for hours.

You'd think that all politicians and presidents and preachers throughout our history have been faithful spouses and pure as the driven snow, sinless.

For the record, I'm anti-adultery and anti-prostitution. I'm not defending Vitter.

I think Vitter made some bad choices. I also think that the press is making some bad choices. The public would be better served if the press would follow stories with far greater weight than this one.

We're at risk of a terror attack.

Who cares?

We want more on the Vitter story.

Riiiiiiight.