The Daily Background
| Deputy Secretary of State revealed as Prostitution Service Customer; Resigns abruptly
by Arlen Parsa
Meet Randall L. Tobias (pictured above).
Tobias, the Deputy Secretary of State (and Condoleeza Rice’s right-hand man) resigned today after ABC News discovered that he had been a customer of a notorious DC prostitution service, Pamela Martin and Associates, which the Department of Justice has brought to court.
Mr Tobias, who had previously been appointed by President Bush to a top anti-AIDS post, did not give a reason for his resignation, saying it was only for “personal reasons” and had nothing to do with the timing of ABC’s discovery. His personal cell phone number was found in the records of the alleged prostitution service, which claims it was only a legal “sexual fantasy business.”
The former Deputy Secretary of State claims that he only got massages from the Pamela Martin and Associates, and that he has now moved on to another service “with Central Americans” to fulfill his massage needs. Tobias is married.
Ironically, Tobias was a big proponent of the White House’s abstinence-only policies. Tobias was also involved in requiring hotly-contested anti-prostitution oaths from US aid groups.
The owner of the alleged prostitution service, Jeane Palfrey (often called the “DC Madam” by the media), who is charged with running a prostitution ring in a case that is expected to go to trial this year told ABC that she has many more famous clients and that she will drag all of them to the witness stand to testify that they never received sex for money from her employees.
“I’m sure as heck not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone, four to eight years, because I’m shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever,” Palfrey told ABC.
Tobias is the second high-profile Bush Administration figure to be revealed as a customer of Pamela Martin and Associates, the first being Harlan K. Ullman, the architect of the Pentagon’s “shock and awe” strategy used in the early stages of the Iraq War.
While the terrible hipocracy of this situation given the conservative agenda against personal freedoms makes this ring of justice, I can’t see how crucifying a man for his consensual sexual behavior is fair. Whatever else he may have done, patronizing brothels has no bearing whatsoever on his ability to do his job. The only way in which it can be construed as harmful is by providing fodder for cheap and unfounded attacks on credibility. Another victim of the War on Sex.
Regardless of how you feel about prostitution, I would hope you would consider how the guy’s wife must feel.