Inevitably, they’re calling it “Bondagegate”: Republican National Committee aides racked up a $2,000 tab at a Hollywood topless club featuring a bondage/S&M theme.
The club, called “Voyeur,” was inspired by the orgy scene in the 1999 Stanley Kubrick movie “Eyes Wide Shut.” Erik Brown, a California-based Republican political consultant, handed the RNC a reimbursement request for more than $1,900 for a visit to the club on Jan. 31, listing it as a “meal expense.”
Although Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele didn’t attend the outing to “Voyeur” and didn’t personally approve the expenditure, the incident has turned up the pressure on him to resign. Big GOP donors are said to be disgusted at his free-spending ways, including (according to a New York Times story) “$17,500 on travel by private jet, in addition to about $15,000 on limousines” plus “several hotel charges ranging in the thousands of dollars, including the W Hotel in Washington ($15,000), the Beverly Hills Hotel ($9,000) and the Four Seasons in Philadelphia ($7,000).”
And that was just for one month.
One of the few defenders of Steele has been Oregon Republican Party Chairman Bob Tiernan, who told The Oregonian’s Jeff Mapes that “Voyeur” isn’t as raunchy as news accounts have made it out to be.
“It’s an extremely high-end bar, it’s not a topless or bottomless or strip joint kind of place,” Tiernan said. “They cover a hell of a lot more than a lot of nightclubs do.”
A review published in the Los Angeles Times when the club opened last October described “impromptu bondage and S&M ‘scenes’ being played out on an elevated platform by scantily clad performers throughout the night. … There is also a heavy net suspended above the club’s lounge area where performers writhe above the heads of clubgoers. Even more provocative scenes are played out in an enclosed glass booth area adjacent to the club’s dance floor area.
“‘It’s pretty . . . intense,’ clubgoer Lee Stone admitted on opening night as one female performer with a horse’s bit in her mouth was being strapped to the wall by another just behind the booth he was sharing with friends.”
It all sounds pretty kinky to me. But I guess I haven’t had as much experience inside strip clubs as Bob Tiernan has.
Tiernan told Mapes that although the club wasn’t as decadent as portrayed in the media, he still doesn’t approve of the party reimbursing people for “spending $1,900 for drinks with your buddies.” The staffer who approved the reimbursement has been fired, and Brown is supposed to pay the party back.
Whether this latest flap will finally bring down Steele remains to be seen, but my guess at this point is that it will soon blow over. What the heck, these guys are working around the clock to save this great country from “socialism” and they deserve a little R&R sometimes.
This article appears in Apr 1-7, 2010.
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Big surprise!Our government is corrupt!the Repub’s and the Dem’s,they share the same goal and they are using the two party system to divide us and keep us fighting amung ourselves in order to distract us while they take control of every aspect of our lives.You’re stupid partisan comment’s are helping them,not us,Bruce
Wow, what a close minded moralist you sound like in this article. You come off like one of those people who simply looks for excuses to brag about how holy they are. Maybe you should spend some time actually in a strip club and get to know the rest of society. You are as bad as those people who obsessed over Bill Clinton’s BJ. If you are simply feigning outrage to try to slam some one whose politics you disagree with, you did not do a good job making you point clear. I have no shock or ill will towards the republicans after reading this hit piece, rather I am wondering when the Source hired such puritan to write for them.
Some of my faithful conservative readers are getting worked up because their comments haven’t been posted. Please be advised that this is not the result of a vast left-wing conspiracy to silence you. First, I do not decide which comments get posted. Second, this being a weekend, the comments probably won’t be reviewed by those who do the reviewing until Monday. So stop getting your panties in a twist.
No need to be shy about being called socialist. It’s all the rage these days.
Also, the pikers at the GOP don’t hold a candle to the debaucher in chief, Bill Clinton. Both parties have contributed to our sorry state(pun intended)
I read about 10% of the post, just enough to know that it had an incredibly liberal spin as usual, but in this case, these guys are sleezebags. Throw them out. A sleezebag is a sleezebag, left right or center.
One of my adoring fans accuses me of being a liar because my comment got posted before Monday.
The explanation: My posts don’t have to get reviewed because I’m on staff.
But in future I think I’m going to refrain from commenting and let the wackos go at each other.
As I said before you insult anybody that does nit share your partisan slant,I however find it hard to be offended by a clown that looks like he just crawled out from under a Volkswagon bus,on the sixties.And the pease sign,how ironic,coming from someone like you,peace to all that agree with and kiss my @ss?Of course every thing now is upside down,peace means war.Case in point,Obama gets the nobel peace prize for sending 30 thousand troop’s to Afghanistan.Gotta protect the Poppies for the cia.
Thank’s for posting my comment’s, better late than never.I have to quit getting pissed off,its affecting my typing skill’s.
“You are as bad as those people who obsessed over Bill Clinton’s BJ. If you are simply feigning outrage to try to slam some one whose politics you disagree with, you did not do a good job making you point clear.”
I’m not outraged; I think this tempest in a teapot is just funny.
“clown that looks like he just crawled out from under a Volkswagon bus,on the sixties.”
Uh, that’s not really my picture, Bruno.
For the record, if you are a member of the site, your comments go up directly and are reviewed after they are posted. If you are not a member of the site, your comments are reviewed before they are posted. Posting times are slower on the weekend. For some of the more consistent commentators, I would recommend joining the site. You’ll make my job and your experience better. If you look at the very top of the site you’ll see a link that says “create account.” That will get you started. We do not give out the information. Happy posting!