Posted on 05/25/2004 10:22:49 PM PDT by kattracks
Meet the new Monica Lewinsky. Jessica Cutler, a 24-year-old mailroom clerk and phone receptionist, worked for Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, until last Friday -- when he fired her for using Senate computers to post to an Internet Web log that chronicled her trysts with six different men in Washington. Cutler's partners reportedly included government officials who gave her money for her sexual services.
Diary excerpt: "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." In another entry, Cutler explains: "F(equals)Married man who pays me for sex. Chief of Staff at one of the gov agencies, appointed by Bush."
Cutler, who aspired to be a journalist, spouted: "I'm sure I am not the only one who makes money on the side this way: How can anybody live on $25K/year??" When I was 24 and making less than that, I did it by eating Spaghetti-O's, Ramen noodles and Swanson pot pies for dinner; driving a Toyota Tercel with no air conditioning; and sleeping on a $30 futon. I did it the way most parents teach their daughters to succeed: through hard work, thrift, faith and perseverance.
I don't usually write about such inside-the-Beltway gossip, but Cutler's indecent conduct, glib rationalizations and in-your-face shamelessness, and the accompanying feeding frenzy over her, deserve a firm outside-the-Beltway lashing. This vulgar little episode reflects a larger, disturbing media trend toward normalizing and glamorizing sexual promiscuity among young working women. It harms those trying to succeed on their merits in the professional arena.
And it also harms our own daughters, who will be forced to fight harder to protect their dignity and credibility in a "Girls Gone Wild" culture.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post featured Cutler, who dubbed herself and her online diary "Washingtonienne," in a prominent story last Sunday headlined "The Hill's Sex Diarist Reveals All (Well, Some)." Cutler posed for a fetching photo and supplied juicy soundbites. "It's so cliched. It's like, 'There's a slutty girl on the Hill?' There's millions of 'em," Cutler told the Washington Post's Richard Leiby. Millions? Follow-up dispatches appeared in Roll Call, the New York Post, the London Independent, United Press International and the Associated Press, whose wire reports on Cutler were reprinted everywhere from the Akron Beacon Journal to the Houston Chronicle to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The news media originally caught whiff of Cutler from an online D.C.-based gossip site, Wonkette.com, authored by "edgy" (read: profanity-laced and sex-obsessed) writer Ana Marie Cox, who herself has been recently touted extensively by adoring media fans. CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen hosted a tony party for Cox last month; Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz invited her on his CNN show, where she boasted, "I'm the expert at talking dirty."
Cutler and Cox, 31, appeared together on Fox News Channel this week, where they giggled and guffawed and rolled their eyes as they reveled in their sleazy celebrity. When Fox anchor Brigitte Quinn (who deserves a medal for her restraint) asked Cutler whether her parents knew about her raunchy sex life, she snorted: "They do now!" Cox cackled and went on to coo about Cutler's writing talent and future book publishing prospects. Cox generously mentioned she didn't want too much "credit" for Cutler's newfound notoriety. ("Credit?" Quinn mused subtly. "That's an interesting word.")
This female Beavis and Butthead duo illustrate what normal Americans hate about the Capitol scene: narcissism, moral bankruptcy and self-congratulatory media-political incest. The Washington Post's legitimization of this shallow "story" illustrates something else: the mainstream media's perverted moral values. The paper's recent profiles and features of social conservatives drip with condescension and ridicule. Religious activists are portrayed as intolerant homophobes; Republicans as gun-toting rubes; abstinence promoters as freaks.
But give The Washington Post two vain, young, trash-mouthed skanks who couldn't care less about what their parents think of their sex-drenched infamy, and the newspaper can't wait to help make them full-fledged members of the media elite.
Cutler and Cox apparently have no trouble looking at themselves in the mirror every morning. I pity the mainstream journalists-turned-pimps who can do the same.
©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Y'know, I didn't even think of that! A quick internet posting is a good way to protect oneself, if one had supremely damaging information on some powerful person. If it didn't save one's life, at least it would insure that the person was connected to the crime and brought to trial...
I guess a juicy document detailing all the damaging info is a handy thing to keep on disk, for just such an occasion. Anybody want to bet that more stuff like this will come out in the future?
All that, and brains too.
Does not matter; no one will prosecute; unless she has a gun or too many parking tickets of course.
Regards,
This is reminiscent of an edition of The Mitch Albom Show a couple of years back when he interviewed two webcam teen girls who posed in skimpy outfits (but not naked) in live chats, and who posted "wish lists" of expensive items on their sites for admirers to send to them. They didn't see a maddog thing wrong with it, and just laughed when Mitch and his co-hosts suggested it is a short leap to porn and/or prostitution.
It's amazing how effectively materialism masks shame, isn't it?
I was invited to go to a strip club for a workmate's birthday bash. I politely turned the invite down, citing my religious beliefs, but added: "Remember, all the girls really hate you. They just pretend to like you because you'll give them money." They just laughed, but I think deep down, they know it's true.
Recently, on Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, they had a standup comic who said that he is confused by the concept of the strip club. He said it dawned on him as he left -- "I just paid $60 for a boner when I get one for free every morning!"
I thoght Quinn on Fox went in the "tank" onthe nterview..why nnot ask her..w"what's the difference between what you did and prostitution?"
And the RATs are shocked by the malfesence that occured in Grab an Arab prison.
Go figure.
Whatta ya mean, there's something wrong with rampant skankism? It's just about sex, and that's nobody else's business.
The evil is far greater than that. Compromising sexual situations are nothing new in Washington, and it was going on long before the current generation came along. But at one time, there was some shame about bad behavior, and those involved took pains to conceal it. Now, nothing is concealed, and sometimes, it is even made out to be something to brag about and take pride in.
Interestingly, Howie Kurtz does NOT nave more class than that.
A while back I said I would be "concerned and ambivalent" if my daughter had a job on Capitol Hill. People responded as if I'd said I'll never let my daughters out of the house, even to the mailbox, until they're in their 40's.
Well, thank you, Michelle Malkin! This situation is just another illustration that the culture in Washington is one where a decent young woman would be surrounded be people who expect her to be a slut. I'm not saying that my daughter, the Extremely Opininated Anoreth, couldn't handle it successfully when she's older, but let's not pretend all the sleaze went away with the Clintons.
(Opinions, slightly-older political mom?)
Yep, they're "D.C. pretty," alright!
One of the most elegant actresses ever!
I guess I'll continue voting for my senator, Mike DeWine.
Alice Krige...of the movie "Ghost Story"?
Keep me posted. Growlllll
He's a pathetic RINO. Not that I want a 'Rat. But there are far better Republicans out there.
I don't recall which one of you repeatedly posted pictures of the two next to your comments, but rest assured, one of you did.
I never deigned to grant any of you "permission" to use any epithet in the whole of the English language! This is America. As far as I know, you can use any word you choose to describe another particular person: skank, hose-bag, trollop, tart, gigolo, laced mutton-that happens to be my favorite-john, etc., etc.
My only point was that we-and this includes prurient professional journalists-should all be a little bit more circumspect when leveling charges that may or may not turn out to be true.
None of this rigmarole would have been necessary if Sen. DeWine had just ignored it in the first place. Outside of the D.C. area and its outlying suburbs, no one-to my knowledge-was acutely aware of who this woman was, until she was fired.
Please don't try to bait me into another post, I feel that my argument has been sufficiently laid out in the above.
Thank you for your appreciation!
Prostitution is a felony in DC?
That it is.
Amazing. Link?
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