EDGE New England

Apparently adhering to the old maxim that "he who can, does; he who can’t, preaches," Louisiana U.S. Sen. David Vitter is scolding fellow Republicans for allegedly being too forgiving on social issues.

Vitter was responding to GOP Ohio Sen. Geroge Voinovich, who told a newspaper that his party was having trouble resonating with voters because it’s perceived as dominated by white Southern men.

"The party’s being taken over by Southerners," he said. "What they hell have they got to do with Ohio?"

That didn’t go down well with Vitter. He told the Washington Times, "I’m on the side of conservatives getting back to core conservative values. There are a lot of us from the South who hold those value, which I think the party is supposed to be about. We strayed from them in the past few years, and that’s why we performed so badly in the national elections."

In 2007, Vitter was discovered to have frequented the "D.C. madam" and availed himself of the services of her "girls" many times. Then a local New Orleans madam came forth with the news that Vitter was also a very good client of hers.

There was one tiny ray of good news in all this: The rumor that Vitter had a diaper fetish was not true--or at least has remained unproven. Vitter was a vociferous critic of Bill Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky. He is adamantly opposed to gay marriage.

Even the commenters in the ultra-conservative Washington Times are subjecting the senator’s comments about core values to ridicule.

"Thank goodness for Sen. Vitter and his commitment to core conservative values," wrote one. "He has the decency to hire hookers instead of cheating on his wife with a mistress like so many others."

"With all due respect, how does sticking your married penis into a prostitute constutite ’conservatives returning to core conservative values?’" asked another. "Evidently core family Republican values include diapers and whores," wrote yet another.

Vitter is being opposed in the GOP primary by a well-known female porn star.