Republican Ken Calvert, representing California's smog-shrouded 43rd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, is on record as having earned 100% ratings from the Christian Coalition. Calvert's rating from the prostitutes'-rights group COYOTE is unavailable for publication, despite documented evidence of Calvert's time in the field researching conditions in the hooker workplace.

On October 8, 1998, Congressman Calvert rhetorically asked his House compatriots: "Did [President Clinton] obstruct justice in a sexual-harassment case? Did he intimidate witnesses? Did he abuse his Presidential power? Only impeachment hearings will answer these serious questions."

Congressman Calvert probably felt qualified to prejudge the Chief Executive because the California legislator holds a particular insight into the psychology of a man of position faced with sexual allegations from his social inferiors. Would a politician dare to abuse the power of his office to squash public disclosure of his sordid sexual practices? Ken Calvert knows beyond any shadow of doubt that the answer is a resounding yes.

During the early-morning hours of November 28, 1993, police officers from Corona, California, spotted Ken Calvert engaged in sex in a parked car. The partial truth of this encounter would be hidden until almost half a year later. For months, Calvert denied that he had done anything wrong with the woman who had been ensconced with him in the vehicle. Police later identified her as a known prostitute, but at the time of the initial press report on the matter, Calvert insisted that "nothing happened."

Corona police would only reveal that the Congressman had been observed in his car with a female and that the couple had exhibited no sign of criminal activity.

Corona Police Captain John Dalzell explained that Calvert was not detained because "while the officer saw certain things, he didn't see everything necessary to support a finding that a crime was committed." According to Dalzell, the responding officer's decision to send Calvert freely on his way "wasn't a close call. He didn't even call for a supervisor." Such are the perks of public office.

The Riverside [California] Press-Enterprise doubted the explanation provided by Calvert and the cops. The newspaper went to court to force the Corona police to release the confidential report prepared by the cops at the scene of the "noncrime." These officers most certainly recognized that they had encountered their local Congressman with his genitals literally exposed.

The police report is inconsistent with both Calvert's and the Corona P.D.'s versions of events. In the words of assisting officers Steve Sears and Fred Austin: "I observed a male subject in the driver seat....As I made my way to the driver door, a female immediately sat up straight in the front passenger seat. It appeared as if her head was originally laying [sic] in the driver's lap.... Both subjects were extremely nervous....

"I noticed that the male subject was placing his penis into his unzipped dress slacks, and was trying to hide it with his untucked dress shirt....The male subject started his vehicle and placed it into drive and proceeded to leave. I ordered him three times to turn off the vehicle, and he finally stopped and complied....The male identified himself as Kenneth Stanton Calvert...and stated 'We're just talking that's all, nothing else.'...I spoke with [Calvert's female companion, Lore Lorena] Linberg separately. I asked her if she had ever been arrested for anything, and she said, 'Yes, for prostitution and under the influence of heroin.' Linberg said she had last 'shot up' approximately one week prior and is currently on methadone."

Once the facts had been forced into the open, Calvert quickly responded with an apology, a simple explanation and a denial. The Congressman acknowledged that he had been caught in "an extremely embarrassing situation," then made the extraordinarily hard-to-swallow claim that he had not paid for sex from an established professional. Calvert further defied credibility by claiming that he had "panicked and tried to drive away," but "came to my senses."

Calvert presented a very plausible explanation for his conduct: "I was feeling intensely lonely."

The lawmaker did not, however, offer any explanation of why he had lied about an illicit sexual contact for months, nor why he so vehemently begrudged another man's use of sex­i.e., President Bill Clinton­to soften the hard isolation of elective office.