Republican Party

Ensign: In Defense of Prostitution

By Jay Newton-Small | @JNSmall | February 24, 2011 | +

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave a somewhat ill-received speech before the legislature in his home state of Nevada. Reid argued why “the time has come to outlaw prostitution.” Nevada is the only state where the world’s oldest profession is legal in some counties and there are 28 brothels in the state. In the audience was one of those brothel owners, several legal prostitutes and the industry’s top lobbyist. “Harry Reid will have to pry the cathouse keys from my cold, dead hands,” Dennis Hof, owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, told reporters on the scene according to Politico.

Prostitutes, today you have a new champion: John Ensign, Reid’s junior counterpart. “You know, that’s a county by county issue and I think and it should be left to the counties,” the Republican told reporters after a town hall meeting in Henderson on Wednesday, according to a local tv station. Yes, this is the Ensign who admitted to an affair with his best friend’s wife and former staffer and allegedly got his parents to pay the disgruntled husband hush money. Ensign’s up for reelection in 2012 and is already trailing likely primary challenger Rep. Dean Heller by 15 points in polls. Ensign may need every vote he can get, but from a PR perspective does he really want to be the guy out there espousing prostitution?

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Related Topics: Nevada, prostitution, 2012 Election, Congress, Harry Reid, Republican Party

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  • afguy

    Oh, c’mon…
    .
    I want to know what Dave Vitter’s “position” is on prostitution”…
    .
    Is he for it, a’gin it… or in favor of opening a branch down the hall from his office in the Capitol Building?
    .
    Come to think of it, given the numbers of lobbyists in Washington, maybe the entire legislative branch should be licensed to “practice”..

  • shepherdwong

    “Yes, this is the Ensign who admitted to an affair with his best friend’s wife and former staffer and allegedly got his parents to pay the disgruntled husband hush money.”
    .
    He’d have saved his parents a lot of coin if he’d gone to the Bunny Ranch instead.

  • afguy

    Question-
    .
    Does the Congressional Health plan include annual physicals, certifications of cleanliness, and periodic screenings for “communicable diseases”?
    .
    I’m pretty sure the other “hookers” are required to have those…

  • http://shortplaysaboutrealpeople.wordpress.com Michael Maiello

    Aside from the fact that both the Ensign story and Nevada’s red light laws pertain to sex that’s frowned upon by polite society, I’m not sure I see a real problem here. Polite society is sometimes wrong!

  • nflfoghorn

    Is prostitution a nationwide illness that must be cured? An historically evil necessity? Is it viewed the same as the “war on drugs”? I may sound a little libertarian on this but unless it’s harming someone directly it’s probably best to leave it alone, Mr. Reid.

  • afguy

    Is prostitution a nationwide illness that must be cured?
    .
    Only in our politics, nfl.

  • nflfoghorn

    I guess so afguy. I’m not a participant – just pointing it out (oh boy ;) ).

  • sacredh

    “For 30 minutes Reid argued why “the time has come to outlaw prostitution.”

    F**k Harry Reid. Don’t pay him either. Some women and men want to be prostitutes. Getting PAID to have sex? It sounds pretty damned good to me. I used to date a hooker. She loved sex. If she couldn’t sell it, she gave it away.

  • swissArmyBrainBETA

    the country rights defense! love it. also love the term ‘bunny ranch’

  • http://grapemusing.blogspot.com/ grape_crush

    Ensign may need every vote he can get, but from a PR perspective does he really want to be the guy out there espousing prostitution?

    Maybe if he would have taken advantage of the Bunny Ranch’s government assistance program, Ensign would have avoided everything but the adultery charge.

    And it’s not as if getting a bit of strange ever seems to impact a GOPer’s political career…

  • afguy

    When I was out in Tucson, there was precious little in the way of a prostitution problem that I remember. They did an interview once with one of the “ladies” about the “economic conditions” of the trade at the time.
    .
    Something about a college town and having to compete with the girls “giving it away” at the local bars.

  • shepherdwong

    “If she couldn’t sell it, she gave it away.”
    .
    No joke, prostitution is one of the few occupations/lifestyles that can lead to a “normal” satisfying life for nymphomaniacs.

  • sacredh

    When I was in college I knew a couple of young ladies that paid for their tuition by hooking. They were busting their asses at jobs after classes to make a fraction of what they did by prostitution. They hooked on weekends and made far more money in two days than they ever could by working minimum wage jobs all week long. They choose who they slept with and got paid well for it. Other than a little herb they weren’t into drugs. We’re such a two-faced puritanical society. Advertising uses sex to sell products and yet we act shocked when someone wants to sell actual sex.

  • square1

    Damn you, af, you got to the obvious joke first.

  • afguy

    Which part, Vitter or the Legislature?

  • allthingsinaname

    Prostitution equals Congress who wants to outlaw that?

  • freeinpa

    The real story is Dirty Harry Reid doesn’t like the competition. He wants to be the only wh0re in NV

  • sacredh

    shepherdwong, When I was younger, if a woman had offered to giive me money for sex, I’d have jumped at the chance. I wouldn’t have felt degraded or used. I’d have thought I was the luckiest b@stard on earth. Why should we think women are any different? Imagine a bunch of different women wanting to pay you for sex. All the sex you want and you make money off it too. Work nights and goof off all day. Talk about a dream job.

  • shepherdwong

    “Imagine a bunch of different women wanting to pay you for sex. All the sex you want and you make money off it too.”
    .
    Another one of god’s cruel gender-difference jokes.

  • mccainfluffer

    When I saw the title of this post, I thought it was an article defending the Beltway media and journalism establishment.

  • afguy

    Don’t forget lobbying and Congress in general…

  • GivenUp

    The other thing that we will need to be aware of is the question of who will be getting arrested and charged, it is certainly not going to be any of the clients.

  • deconstructiva

    So Reid wants prostitution to go down? That’s gotta blow.

  • GivenUp

    I’d take that job, unfortunately there seem to be no openings these days, dang economy.

  • apr2563

    I have no objection to the legalization of prostitution. Since John’s are rarely arrested, there is little hope of prostitution being eradicated.
    .
    However, prostitutes can not look forward to being a “Pretty Woman” and a rescue by Richard Gere.
    The can look forward to VD, physical abusive Johns and pimps, addiction, and possibly death.
    .
    Even with legalization, prostitutes are prey to the roughest sort of treatment.

  • ricardo4max

    Thanks for your posts. Clear logical rational concise yet full of facts.They clearly get the liberal neocommies’ panties in a knot. LOL!!

  • ricardo4max

    Harry Reid is so transparent here. This is a typical liberal tactic. Seemingly come out with a position that is contrary to your beliefs and your usual behavior. Then try to trick opponents into taking the other side of the issue when you never had any intention of the supporting the very issue you declared support for in the first place.
    Harry is not for killing prostitution in Nevada. In fact, it is out of his jurisdiction. He is just desperate and trying to get some republic ans to say that they FOR legalized prostitution. Juvenile at best Harry.

  • http://2thirdsrocks.wordpress.com 2thirdsrocks

    Well they did promise transparency…

  • http://thomaschi.wordpress.com thomaschi

    Harry Reid went after the Nevada brothels this week. I just got a call from a reporter in Los Angeles, California after having helped a new author from Nevada named Holly Vegas write her autobiography. Holly Vegas, her stage name from Pahrump, Nevada, where she worked – Holly has been writing about the prostitution in the casino resorts, brothels, and the industry in Hollywood for years in her book, Selling Sex in Las Vegas. We have video interview, etc. Holly Vegas also wrote about her accounts with film producers in West Hollywood, Malibu, and Beverly Hills, California in a book titled, Selling Sex in Hollywood. Here Holly touches on casting calls in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.

    Thomas Chi
    Publisher
    Selling Sex in Las Vegas by Holly Vegas

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