Publishing deal rescues Capitol Hill sex diarist (WASHINGTONIENNE ALERT)

The Scotsman ^ | July 12, 2004 | JACQUI GODDARD

[MadIvan]

IT LOOKED like Jessica Cutler’s career was over when she was fired by a United States senator for using the office computer to chronicle her sex life on the internet. But the publishing industry never can resist a good scandal on Capitol Hill.

In a deal said to be worth $300,000 (almost £170,000), the junior aide who shocked Washington with her lurid online "blogs" of sex with congressional colleagues - including a married White House appointee - has been signed up by Hyperion to write a novel based on her encounters.

Given the nature of the author’s "research", the deal seems an unlikely marriage. Hyperion is the publishing arm of Disney, a company noted for its love of all things chaste and wholesome, while Ms Cutler, 26, became known as the Harlot on the Hill.

"I think that the people who have these blogs and post these websites are fascinating," Pilar Queen, of the literary agency Carlisle & Co, told the Washington Post in the course of head-hunting Ms Cutler.

"We’re thinking about a book focused on sex on the Hill, her experiences of working as an intern. Clearly, she has something that she wants to get out there."

Indeed she does; in addition to the book deal, Ms Cutler has agreed to pose nude for Playboy’s November issue.

In the space of just two weeks in May, the former Syracuse University student became the talk of congressional circles with her anonymous web postings in which she shared in graphic detail her simultaneous affairs with six men and crushes on several others, all of them referred to only by their initials.

Writing under the pseudonym Washingtonienne, she gave few clues as to her own identity, save to boast that she had "a glamour job on the Hill" - a generous assessment given that her role later turned out to involve little more than opening envelopes in the post-room of Senator Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican.

"I could not care less about government or politics, but working for a senator looks good on my resumé and these marble hallways are such great places for meeting boys and showing off my outfits," she noted on her site.

It was not just her musings about sexual dalliances that so titillated Washington, but the revelation that some of them paid her for it, which she saw as a means to top up a lamentable $25,000 (less than £14,000) pay cheque.

"Most of my living expenses are thankfully subsidised by a few generous older gentlemen. I’m sure I am not the only one who makes money on the side this way: how can anyone live on $25k a year?" she reasoned.

The cast of characters included "AJ", an intern who worked in the same office; "MK", a "serious long-term boyfriend" who she was seeing again after a break-up; and "R", also known as Threesome Dude.

"W" was a sugar-daddy whose sexual tastes she disapproved of but tolerated because "the money is too good" and "F" was described as a "married man who pays me for sex. Chief of Staff at one of the government agencies, appointed by Bush".

On one blog, she confessed: "I just took a long lunch with F and made a quick $400. When I returned to the office, I heard that my boss was asking about my whereabouts. Loser."

F, it seems, even had a key to her apartment because she got home one day to find he had let himself in and left her a gift of a food blender. "Why didn’t he call first?" she pondered. "What if I was in bed with my intern and F popped in with a surprise blender?"

"MD" was later identified on other internet sites that picked up the story as Matt Doyle, a staffer working for Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, a respected Democrat and family-values champion who ran for vice-president at the 2000 election. Mr Doyle hired Ms Cutler for a two-month internship in Senator Lieberman’s office in January.

Another of her liaisons, "RS", turned out to be Robert Steinbuch, a lawyer who works for Senator DeWine and is also a part-time ethics instructor. Thanks to Ms Cutler, all of Washington now knows that "he likes spanking".

"He’s very up-front about sex, he likes talking dirty and stuff," Ms Cutler confided on her website. "He told me that he likes submissive women. Good, now I can take it easy in bed."

Ms Cutler got the sack after fellow "blogger" Ana Marie Cox - who maintains a political gossip site under the name of Wonkette - outed her as the woman behind Washingtonienne. The two were later spotted partying together, leading to speculation that the whole thing was a publicity-seeking set-up.

If it was, her Hyperion deal is proof that it paid off. Ms Cutler maintains that she only ever wrote the weblog to amuse her friends but is not ashamed of it. In fact, she says of her prolific liaisons: "For most people I know, that’s a typical week."

[Valentine_W]

"Senator Mike DeWine"

I would also like to how Cutler managed to get hired by DeWine's office. Granted, Lieberman is a more conservative Democrat, but there are always dozens of very broke, young conservative college graduates, with a solid history of conservative activism and scholarship, who are looking for entry-level jobs on the Hill. Many times, recent conservative college grads have to move out to Washington and then wait months before finding a job like Cutler's. The fact that she probably got hired over more qualified and sincere young people really annoys me to no end.

[MadIvan]

Unsurprising. Wonkette is apparently just a hack with a website.

Regards, Ivan

[KangarooJacqui]

Yes. Very silly. I mean, nobody enjoys a good...

(I'm going to stop right there, on the grounds that further comment may - erm - compromise myself...)

[KangarooJacqui]

what she's getting is quite enough as it is

It sounds like what she was getting on Capitol Hill, it's a wonder she can walk...

[cyborg]

Or sit down for that matter...that bum should be still going ouch!

[cyborg]

Hey don't feel bad. I read Washingtonienne's blog too. Seen her pic? She'll be needing plastic surgery soon if not a bacteria shot in the heine!

[KangarooJacqui]

entry-level staff

The humour writes itself...

[MadIvan]

It sounds like what she was getting on Capitol Hill, it's a wonder she can walk...

Sit, you mean. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Hey don't feel bad. I read Washingtonienne's blog too. Seen her pic? She'll be needing plastic surgery soon if not a bacteria shot in the heine!

I'm under the impression that antibiotics would cause her to dissolve.

Regards, Ivan

[cyborg]

mine too... hope the $$$$ was worth it. No respectable man would marry her.

[MadIvan]

mine too... hope the $$$$ was worth it. No respectable man would marry her.

Let alone touch her without astronaut gloves on. As you can see, I found her blog pretty repulsive.

Regards, Ivan

[cyborg]

I was unimpressed.

[MadIvan]

I was unimpressed.

This is what I found disturbing (apart from her being disgusting) - to work on Capitol Hill is to genuflect at the altar of representative government. I've briefly worked in the Commons as an aide, so I know something about this - it is a place where the great struggles of liberty, and the dreams of one's forebears come to fruition are lost.

And what does she do? She and her "mates" turn it into a swinger's bar. Where is the respect, the decorum, the propriety that one should bear in such a place? She is utterly filthy.

Regards, Ivan

[cyborg]

Well actually she just tapped into the seedy sex subculture that breeds in politics. Many of these vaunted politicians COULD CARE LESS!! Don't be so idealistic about what representative government means, the politicians who patronize these whores don't care.

[MadIvan]

Don't be so idealistic about what representative government means, the politicians who patronize these whores don't care.

My hero, President Reagan, was that much of an idealist - so it's to his example that I cling. Those politicians you describe can go to hell.

Regards, Ivan

[cyborg]

Ronald Reagan was perhaps the last president who really really respected and understood his job. Dubya does too but Dutch was special.

[Jimmy Valentine]

It is right about here that I will invoke the ghost of Chandra Levy.

Capitol Hill interns are little school fish that get devoured by the larger predators that swim in the waters of that place.

I would never let a child of mine be an intern up there.

Regards,

[1rudeboy]

I think you meant to say could not care less.

[TheBigB]

Does Paris Hilton have a relative working in DC?

Oh, and in case I forgot to mention it, after a multi-state move and a new (and better) job...

TheBigB is back, baybeee!

Didja miss me? :)

PING to the newly-created REPUBLICAN PARTY REPTILE ping list, named after our spiritual founder, P.J. O'Rourke. What is the Republican Party Reptile? It is a creature of the eighties. It’s neoconservatism with its pants down around its ankles, the Rehnquist Supreme Court on drugs, a disco Hobbes living without shame or federally mandated safety regulations. The Republican Party Reptile supports a strong defense policy, but sees no reason to conduct it while sober. The RPR believes in minimum government interference in private affairs—unless the government brings over extra girls and some ice. In short, the RPR is the new label that our political spectrum has been crying out for—the conservative with a sense of humor and a healthy dose of depravity.

To be added or subtracted, just ask. :o)

[The Scourge of Yazid]

I think her name is Nancy Pelosi.

Cue guy with photo-shopped "Nancy Pelosi as dominatrix" pic.