Mar 29, 2010

RNC investigates $2,000 tab at erotic nightclub

01:37 PM

The Republican National Committee is investigating how nearly $2,000 of its campaign account was spent at an adult nightclub in the Los Angeles area, an RNC spokesman says.

The committee's February report to the Federal Election Commission includes an entry for a $1,946 payment on Feb. 4 for "meals" to Voyeur West Hollywood. The bar's website describes it as "a destination for provocative revelry that combines eroticism and nightlife exclusivity."

RNC spokesman Doug Heye says in a statement that party Chairman Michael Steele had nothing to do with the bar tab.

"This was a reimbursement made to a non-committee staffer," Heye says. "The chairman was never at the location in question, he had no knowledge of the expenditure, nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location at all acceptable."

A Los Angeles Times article about the club's grand opening in October describes Voyeur as "not a sex club but rather a high-end nightclub." Entertainment includes "impromptu bondage and S&M 'scenes' being played out on an elevated platform by scantily clad performers. … Even more provocative scenes are played out in an enclosed glass booth area adjacent to the club's dance floor area."

Needless to say, the blogosphere is consumed with the story, which was first reported by the Daily Caller, which buried the item about the nightclub deep in a larger story about RNC spending. The HuffPost, Politico and others have weighed in since then.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... ightclub/1