May 1 is a difficult day for many people who remember “D.C. Madam” Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who did interviews with Big Head DC and answered many of our requests for information. Her former lawyer, Montgomery Blair Sibley, is using the one-year anniversary of her death, which was ruled a suicide, to launch a publicity tour for his new book, Why Just Her. According to Amazon.com, the 600-page book promises to trace Jeane’s final 20 months “as the judicial system time and again failed to live up to its promise to insure “justice.’” Sibley has also started a Web site and blog that offer many insights into Jeane’s life and state of mind.

As his book promotion kicked off, he did an interview with Big Head DC:

BHDC: You obviously felt close to Jeane. How would you describe your relationship?

Montgomery Blair Sibley: Counselor/client of course. But I define that a little differently than most attorneys I know as I believe attorneys have a therapeutic role as well as a legal counselor role to play for their clients. So with Jeane, I was more than just an attorney.

BHDC: Did you ever grow feelings beyond attorney/client for her?

MBS: Not on a personal love relationship if that is what you mean, but we were friends on a deep level.

BHDC: Are you at all angry with the psychic who told Jeane about the after-life soon before her death?

MBS: No, as Jeane was entitled to her own belief system, and who is to say she was wrong?

BHDC: Could her death have been prevented?

MBS: I don’t know, but I don’t believe it would have happened on my watch.

BHDC: Do you at all feel any part responsible for her death, i.e. do you feel you could have done more?

MBS: No, I consulted several attorneys about my responsibilities as her former legal counsel and the consensus was I had no authority or right to intervene to get her locked up to prevent her from committing suicide.

BHDC: Will there always be some people out there who think Jeane did not commit suicide?

MBS: I have gotten several e-mails today on that very topic lambasting me for helping the cover up.

BHDC: After the book promotion is done, will you be able to easily move on from the Jeane chapters of your life?

MBS: They say time heals all wounds, so time will let me know.

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Big Head DC has conducted an exclusive interview with Larry Sinclair, the Minnesota man who claims he used drugs and had a sexual encounter with Sen. Barack Obama in 1999. We caught up with Sinclair just two days after the Web site WhiteHouse.com posted a statement indicating that Sinclair had been deceptive about his Obama claims during a polygraph test conducted by lie detector expert Ed Gelb. Sinclair, feeling the test’s administrator had been biased and that he couldn’t trust the people who arranged the test, decided to answer several of our questions about his complex situation:

Big Head DC: Do you think that Dan Parisi or anyone else who works for WhiteHouse.com is or has been employed by David Axelrod and/or other members of Sen. Obama’s campaign for president?

Larry Sinclair: I believe Dan Parisi and Robert Braddock were acting as agents of David Axelrod and the Obama camp in making the offer for me to take the polygraph. I believe this to be true as I received a tip via phone at 12:43 a.m. instructing me to find help in obtaining financial records from the Obama camp and Axelrod because an account and communications were accessed in which WH.com and Parisi were having a dispute with Axelrod over the payment of the remaining part of $750,000 to get a polygraph stating I was lying posted fast enough.

BHDC: What do you make of the “deception” finding from WhiteHouse.com’s polygraph conducted by Ed Gelb?

LS: I honestly believe that these results and the claims by Gelb are false, I believe he knowingly accepted money to provide WH.com with the desired results. This is based on the request upon arrival by Gelb’s office for payment of an additional amount that I personally heard a receptionist tell Parisi that Gelb said there was an extra charge and Parisi acknowledged he was advised. I believe this based on all the whispering done while I was present and the amount of time the three spent in closed door discussions before, during and after the exam.

BHDC: There have been several claims that Gelb is not a real PhD — did he present himself as one to you? Did he seem professional?

LS: Gelb did in fact represent himself to me as having a PhD that I found out after returning home was in fact not the case. He did appear somewhat professional with a constant shaking, however he did not control anything about the process and in fact was taking his direction from Robert Braddock of WH.com and Dan Parisi.

BHDC: How did Parisi act toward you throughout the polygraph process?

LS: Parisi did not even look me in the face from the time I met him that Friday morning through the entire visit. He continued to look down toward the floor every time I spoke to him or he was in my presence. He did not at any time produce any ID for me to verify he was who he claimed to be. Not even when he wrote out the checks and I asked for ID, he laughed and said, “I am me.” Mr. Parisi and his assistant Robert Braddock were rude and attitude changed considerably after the exam was done. They met behind closed doors for another hour or so with Gelb.

BHDC: What do you make of all of the false information that is being passed around on the Internet about you?

LS: I find it appalling that most of it is being paid for by Axelrod and the Obama camp by use of paid bloggers who are being fed information that Axelrod and Obama know to be false, know not to be me — but know that these kids will sit up and post it as fact and they (Axelrod and Obama) will not have to answer for it. But I say they will.

BHDC: Would you have come forward with your claims had you known what has happened would happen?

LS: I had put out everything about my past from the start, so I did not worry about what they tried to say about me. I will get vindication against all the knowingly false claims made when this is over because slander and libel is easy to prove when they keep repeating it after being told to retract it.

BHDC: Do you stand by your claims about Barack Obama 100 percent, given the polygraph results?

LS: 1,000 percent, and I have stated from day one, polygraph or not, I will not recant or back down because I am stating truthful claims.

BHDC: Some people will say Big Head DC is biased for even interviewing you. What should we say to those people?

LS: What is biased about trying to get to the truth? The bias is on those media outlets who see the false claims made against a U.S. citizen by a candidate for the president of the U.S., and they still do not report anything. The media knows these attacks against me and the claims made in these attacks are false but they ignore it.

BHDC: What do you make of Obama’s increasing popularity?

LS: Does the phrase “snake oil sales man” give you a hint?

BHDC: Do you think Obama has been well enough vetted on the national political stage?

LS: Obama is not even close to being vetted; everyone says I am a kook, well I am not a kook, and I expect that I am not going to be standing here alone much longer. I expect we will see others come forward before this is over.

BHDC: Have you recently spoken to the limo driver you say was with you and Obama in 1999? What does he think about what you’ve been put through? Has it discouraged him from coming forward?

LS: I placed a call to him Saturday that was not returned. I had spoken with him last week, and he thinks I am crazy for going through this over a lying fraud like Barack Obama and David Axelrod. I truly believe he will come forward, and he knows I am not going to back down.

BHDC: Who is your lawyer in the lawsuit against Obama?

LS: The suit will be dismissed, it will be re-filed. It is being dismissed for failing to state a claim in which entitles me to relief, not because as claimed by others I am not credible. I am attaching a copy for your verification of this statement. WH.com leaked that I was in talks with Gloria Allred to discourage her, which they accomplished.

BHDC: Have you heard from anyone in the Obama campaign since you came forward with your claims?

LS: I have not. I received an e-mail via YouTube asking me to confirm or deny claims made by some Ron Allen of the Obama camp, which I stated were false. I will attach. I will forward copy to you.

BHDC: When did you first realize that Obama was a U.S. Senator?

LS: I became aware he was a politician during watching the 2004 DNC speech while residing in Mexico.

BHDC: How is your health? Are you afraid that this publicity is harmful to your health?

LS: I have some very serious heath problems, which I deal with according to decisions that I made. I do not use my health as an excuse for anything. I live alone, I care for myself, I do not reside in any assisted living complex, nor do I receive an assistant in my daily life.

BHDC: What are you going to do next regarding this whole situation?

LS: I will continue to put my story out there. I am getting some assistance in amending the lawsuit for refiling, and please note, it has not yet been dismissed, nor has the recommendation to dismiss been received or written as claimed by the judge identified on the Web. I am not going away, I am not recanting anything, and I am fighting on, especially with the tip I received this date. I will do a polygraph arranged by me, video tape it non-edited and with the findings released before stopping the camera and will post it before Tuesday if all goes well.

Earlier: A BHDC Greatest Hit: Interview With the “DC Madam”

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Big Head DC featured an interview with MSNBC’s David Shuster in July of 2006 — after Jessica Cutler shared with us that she once had an affair with the political reporter. Cutler, you’ll recall, is a former congressional staff assistant for former Sen. Mike DeWine. She was fired in 2004 after describing her sexual exploits in a blog called Washingtonienne. 

BHDC: What do you love/hate about reporting from Washington day in and day out?

David Shuster: I love the stories, I hate the humidity. Seriously, the weather here stinks. We should all move the nation’s capital to the California coast. Back to the stories… All of us who work as reporters in D.C. are quite fortunate compared to our colleagues elsewhere. Unlike war correspondents or people who cover natural disasters, the worst thing that ever happens in D.C. is somebody loses their reputation.

BHDC: How do you get along with Chris Matthews/Dan Abrams?

DS: I get along well with both Chris Matthews and Dan Abrams. Chris is the best boss and mentor I’ve ever had. And Dan is the most brilliant management choice I’ve ever seen. Dan is a great guy with a terrific view of cable news and how to improve MSNBC. Read more…

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UPDATE, September 26: The case is roiling; take some time to catch up.

UPDATE, July 10: As a result of Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s wide-scale release of her phone records, which was first reported on Big Head DC, it has been revealed that GOP Sen. David Vitter used her escort service — a story that went unreported by the ABC News investigative team in May. When we interviewed Palfrey last month, she was adamant that ABC News made some mistakes:

June 19: Big Head DC sat down last week with alleged “DC Madam” Deborah Jeane Palfrey for a wide ranging three-hour interview, which is sure to make some notorious political power players squirm. New allegations of political corruption and sexual exploits, shocking insights into her case, and honest observations of media coverage to date were frequently on the tip of her tongue. (A tongue, we might add, that was schooled in criminal justice and has had intense training for a law degree.)

We spoke to Palfrey via telephone while she sat in her not-so-luxurious laundry room, labeled “command central” by Palfrey and made famous by her less-than-revealing interview with Brian Ross on ABC’s 20/20 last month, inside her government-seized home in California. Having seen and heard her in action before, we knew she’d be candid, but we wondered how far she’d be willing to go. After all, many DC Madam spectators have wondered why bigger names weren’t revealed as past clients of Palfrey during the ABC interview, and we were left to wonder, too, whether this might turn out to be a rehash of no news.

But Palfrey did make news, talking strongly and eloquently about alleged clients, a list of whom she says likely includes Vice President Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton political guru Dick Morris and other high-ranking politicos. She also adamantly denied that Chandra Levy, a government intern and acquaintance of former Congressman Gary Condit found murdered in DC in 2001, ever worked for her escort service, despite many behind-the scenes claims to the contrary. Read more…

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A scheming vice president of the United States, tired of being #2, sets a devious plan into motion to get rid of the president, making him look like a bumbling idiot. Congress is filled with creatures whose tiny minds stand in inverse proportion to their wide, spreading butts. Journalists are in bed with politicians, literally. Oh, and hookers are everywhere.

But enough about last week’s headlines.

Jamie Malanowski, the managing editor of Playboy, has written his second novel, The Coup (Doubleday), a satirical tour de force of Washington, in which he masterfully rips most of his plot points (see first paragraph) from the contemporary political palette (again, sadly, see first graph).

The names therein have been changed, we presume, to protect the not-so-innocent. But why? At many points during our reading of his 240-page tome, we wished, probably quite naively we admit, that Malanowski had done away with that perfunctory pleasantry. Tell your readers, Jamie, which politician we all know has been having an affair. Use his real name. Highlight the journalist who’s sexed and is still sexing her way to the top of the DC journo-world. Use her real name. Let it all hang out, and face the consequences. Get sued, Jamie. For the sake of humanity, get sued. Forget about selling a book via the traditional route. Burn bridges for the simple sake of telling the truth.

The book is good and will be an especially fun and funny read for those far removed from the insidious world of Beltway politics and journalism. Anyone with a conscience who still chooses to live within the milieu, however, will probably have to stop reading by page 11 to reconsider his or her life’s journey. No doubt, the masochists among us, like Ana Marie Cox, for instance, will get her kicks (and quips) without really examining, or explaining to her readers, why the book “manages to excavate an ugly and hilarious truth about Washington.” Explaining how, after all, is the easy part. The why, perhaps, could get her in trouble.

But Jamie went the traditional route, visiting DC late last week to attend a party hosted by The Washington Monthly in his honor. He saw old pals who’ve published his work; he met young journalists who gushed about Playboy’s articles (hoping all the while to see their bylines in its pages sooner rather than later); yes, he danced within our milieu for a few short hours.

And then he left — leaving us and others like us to ponder the whys of this specific universe, the hub that happens to lead the free world. After the party Big Head DC caught up with Malanowski in an effort to help you, dear readers, to piece together your own whys, whatever they may be: Read more…

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