Leave Lap Dancing to the Pros

As promised, here is my first posting of a newspaper story. Shepherd has alway been a competitive person, and it looks like he's trying to burn out with more intensity than all of the other public officials under indictment.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about the Times Picayune- I've witnessed some shoddy reporting and I think that they spend a little too much time coddling the Boston Club crowd that Ashton Phelps runs with.

But I think they've gotten the Shepherd story right- particularly on his residency issues. I'll have to save my thoughts on the residency requirements for the Louisiana Legislature for a different post.

I'm glad that the TP decided to print the letter to the editor that I've posted below- it is much funnier than anything on the Picayune's now diminished comics page.

CDR


Leave Lap Dancing to the Pros

Re: "State senator arrested in battery, theft, " Page 1, July 28.

I read with dismay the report in Monday's paper of the arrest of a member of the Louisiana Senate, but it was the circumstances of the arrest, as reported by one of the arresting officers, that really caught my eye.
Police said two women were in Sen. Derrick Shepherd's residence, and at the time of the arrest one of them was performing a lap dance for the recumbent incumbent. When I linked that fact with the $100 bill allegedly missing from his ex-girlfriend's pocketbook the story started to come together.
Clearly, the senator doesn't understand that most of the cabarets on Bourbon Street take credit cards. No need to raid someone else's cookie jar for the odd dollar bill to pay for an amateur dance when you can slap down the plastic and high roll to your heart's content.
This lamentable ignorance may be unique to Louisiana, because this past week New Orleans hosted the National Conference of State Legislatures, and I'm pleased to report that our sales numbers indicate that other states' legislators and their staffs are better informed.

Robert Watters
Rick's Cabaret
New Orleans