A conservative senator from America's Bible Belt has apologized after being exposed as a former customer of an upscale call girl ring whose massive client list is said to include many Washington power brokers.
David Vitter, a Republican lawmaker from Louisiana, issued a statement late on Monday acknowledging "a very serious sin in my past," after his telephone number appeared on a phone list of clients connected to the escort service run by Washington's "DC Madam."
"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter said in the statement published in the state's leading newspaper, The New Orleans Times-Picayune, along with other local and national media.
"Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling," the married father of four said.
The first-term senator, whose congressional career has centered largely on issues of marriage, family and morality, added: "Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there -- with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way."
The 46-year-old senator is the latest public official snared in the sex scandal, with many more possible. A federal judge last week lifted a restraining order which now allows alleged "madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey to distribute thousands of pages of phone records that could identify as many as 15,000 people who had dealings with her company.
Palfrey's agency -- Pamela Martin and Associates -- which she insists was a legal escort service, is said to have catered to a broad cross-section of private and public sector officials, including NASA officials, several US military brass, World Bank and International Monetary Fund executives.
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