Below The Beltway

From Megan McArdle:
For this, we have law enforcement? Are there no more rapists roaming our streets? Have murders ceased to be a problem in this fair land, this shining city on a hill? Did all the burglars join Criminals Anonymous? Have the drunk drivers decided to binge only in the comfort of their own living [...]

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, best known as the woman at the center of the juiciest sex scandal to hit D.C. in a decade, is apparently dead from an apparent suicide:
(CNN) — A woman who police believe to be Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the “D.C. Madam,” was found dead in Florida Thursday, according to Tarpon Springs [...]

Well, I’ve got to admit that this doesn’t come as a complete shock:
Deborah Jeane Palfrey was convicted this afternoon of racketeering and other charges after a federal court jury determined that her upscale escort service was actually a front for prostitution.
Jurors deliberated less than eight hours before returning the verdicts against Palfrey, 52, who stood [...]

It seems that David Vitter may not be the only person who will end up being outed by the release of the D.C. Madam’s phone records:
For months, alleged D.C. madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey has promised that her voluminous phone records — all 46 pounds of them — contained some powerful secrets. Within hours of their [...]

Larry Flynt’s Hustler Magazine is claiming credit for Louisiana Senator David Vitter’s confession that he had a “connection” to D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Larry Flynt’s Hustler magazine claimed credit for exposing Sen. David Vitter’s connection to the “DC Madam” Tuesday, saying Vitter confessed after a journalist reported finding the senator’s number in [...]

Deborah Jeane Palfrey appeared on 20/20 last night as part of ABC News story on the D.C. Madam case but, contrary to some expectations, the ABC report did not reveal the names of alleged clients of her service:
During several weeks of calls to possible clients of the woman dubbed the D.C. Madam, Brian Ross of [...]

I kind of figured that a guy named Montgomery Blair Sibley would have an interesting past, and it seems I was right:
Montgomery Blair Sibley, attorney for the morally impugned and legally challenged, is first and foremost Montgomery Blair Sibley, which is to say a descendant of some of the most powerful families in Washington history. [...]

A legal secretary at one of Washington’s most prominent law firms was suspended after it was revealed that she worked for Pamela Martin & Associates, the escort service run by Deboarh Jeane Palfrey and now accused of being a prostitution front:
A legal secretary at one of Washington’s most prominent and well-connected law firms, Akin [...]