Mere hours after the announcement of his resignation, Sen. Trent Lott is the subject of a rapidly spreading story regarding his possible involvement with a gay hooker. It's
Blovember 2006 all over again! Political blog
Big Head DC has
broken the story, but the site has crashed due to overwhelming traffic. Here's their complete post in the meantime:
Once upon a time, there was a twentysomething boy-next-door type with reddish blond hair and a brilliantly white smile. Not one to shy away from attention, he wrote a blog called "Fifteen Minutes," and also became a freelance writer for various publications, including The Stranger in Seattle. He'd often focus on his non-traditional lifestyle as a gay male escort — a topic that often fascinated his readers, which, in turn, helped him to garner a substantial amount of powerful business acquaintances through the years.
Based in San Antonio, he would travel all over the world to meet his clients, which included high profile celebrities, businessmen and even politicians in the United States Congress.
Sometimes within his writings he'd give advice on how other males could become successful escorts. Other times he'd post videos of himself flexing on YouTube. Once, he even scolded gay escort Mike Jones for outing Rev. Ted Haggard as one of his gay escort business participants.
"You were paid for sex, Mike," he wrote in 2006. "The most important rule you can follow when taking people's money in exchange for sex is that—no matter what—their lives stay their own and whatever passes between the two of you remains private. Period."
Many of his clients greatly appreciate his professionalism. In fact, according to one 66-year-old patron who reviewed him on a gay escortsite, he is "a very reliable escort who keeps you informed."
The boy happens to be real, and his "stage name" is Benjamin Nicholas. One of the politicos Big Head DC has learned he's alleged to have been involved with is the married Sen. Trent Lott, 66, who unexpectedly announced his retirement on Monday. Lott is well-known to have been against a plethora of gay rights issues throughout his terms in Congress. He was also good friends with Sen. Larry Craig throughout his time in Congress.
Nicholas told Big Head DC today via e-mail that he didn't want to go on the record to talk about his dealings with Lott, because, said Nicholas, "Trent is going through his fair share of scrutiny right now and I don't want to add to it." However, e-mail and other records confirm that the two have met on at least two occasions.
"All I can say at this point is no comment," Nicholas told us. "It's the professional thing for me to do."
In a subsequent e-mail message, Nicholas confirmed that another publication is working on a story about a "possible relationship" between Lott and himself, but Nicholas also "politely declined" an interview for that story.
"As I said before, Lott has quite a bit on his plate right now and I don't really want to add fuel to the embers," Nicholas told Big Head DC.
UPDATE, 5:30: “Here’s my public comment, on-the-record: Sen. Lott and I have no current affiliation with one another. I’m sure he would appreciate no further scrutiny,” Benjamin Nicholas tells Big Head DC.
Are we buying this? Can we tell Santa not to come this year cuz we already got a big honkin' present? If this is true, IS THERE ANY FUCKIN' WAY THE REPUBLICANS CAN LOOK MORE RIDICULOUS?
UPDATE: Benjamin Nicholas'
personal blog. Trent Lott's
anti-gay voting record. Best joke from
Daily Kos: "Does Benjamin have a hole Lott'd love?"
UPDATE II: Nicholas has just posted a denial on his blog:
"It looks like a Washington DC-based blog called BigHeadDC is making claim that there was (or, is) a working relationship between myself and Senator Trent Lott. There are falsely pieced-together quotes that serve no purpose other than to sensationalize a completely fabricated scoop. I will continue to offer a great sense of confidentiality to the people I see. I have not, nor have I ever seen or had contact with Senator Trent Lott. It's as simple as that. It never happened."
UPDATE III: JMG commenter McMorris directs us to a damning and well-researched accusation that Benjamin Nicolas has been plagiarizing the works of well known writers and posting them verbatim on his blog as his own. And the likelihood of this Trent Lott business being true becomes a lot dimmer.
UPDATE IV: Rob Capriccioso, the author of
Big Head DC, has had some
credibility issues in the past.
UPDATE V: It gets mysteriouser.
BigHeadDC is now claiming that Larry Flynt has
confirmed the hooker story. Here's what has been posted on
LarryFlynt.com under a pullquote about the
BigHeadDC story: "HUSTLER Magazine has received numerous inquiries regarding the involvement of Larry Flynt and HUSTLER in the resignation of Trent Lott. Senator Lott has been the target of an ongoing HUSTLER investigation for some time now, due to confidential information that we have received." Hmm, that's not
quite a confirmation, the way I read it. But it certainly pushes the story back into the possibly-believable column.
In June, HUSTLER published a full-page ad in the
Washington Post offering a
$1 million reward to "anyone who can provide documented evidence of "improper relations" with any high-ranking political official." The author of
BigHeadDC says he wants the money.
Labels: Benjamin Nicholas, Congress, hookers, Trent Lott
Harper's Magazine is speculating that Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott may be resigning because of his possible interference in the FBI's investigation of his brother-in-law, Richard "Dickey" Scruggs, a Mississippi lawyer who, with three other lawyers, has been indicted for attempting to bribe a state circuit court judge.
