Republican Pete Sessions Held Fundraiser at Burlesque Club

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

The Republican National Committee's bondage scandal seems to have, ahem, legs. The GOP scandal that led to the firing of a female staffer who helped organize a $1,946 visit for donors last month to a sex-themed Hollywood club has foes and critics pouring over past news stories and Federal Election Commission reports for other sex club outings by Republicans.

What they've turned up is a couple of fundraisers held by Texas Rep. Pete Sessions a while back. He currently runs the National Republican Congressional Committee, the top fundraising and candidate recruitment operation for House Republicans.

A House aide called the fundraisers old news and events that happened before Sessions took his leadership position.

At worst, one of the fundraisers, held in 2007, was at a Vegas burlesque club, Ivan Kane's Forty Deuce. FEC papers show Pete PAC spent $5,378 at the burlesque club, which also that year hosted porn-star Jenna Jameson's 33rd birthday party.

Our old pal Mary Ann Akers who writes the Sleuth column for the Washington Post's website also wrote about another more low key event at a racy Vegas club called Tao held in February 2009.

Is there a theme here? Democrats snicker yes and plan to make it a campaign issue in the fall. "Considering that NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions himself and Michael Steele's RNC have chosen to use strip clubs as their fundraising base, Republican congressional candidates can expect to be asked if they will accept stripper raised money from either," says a Democratic strategist.

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