'D.C. Madam' VIP Re-Emerges From Scandal

Jan. 29, 2008— -- Former Bush administration official Randall Tobias appears to have landed on his feet after being identified as a customer of the so-called "D.C. Madam."

Tobias, who resigned last spring from his senior State Department position citing "personal reasons," is in line to run the Indianapolis Airport Authority, the Indianapolis (Ind.) Star reported Tuesday.

The organization oversees six airports in the Indianapolis area, including Indianapolis International Airport and the Indianapolis downtown heliport, according to its Web site. Its 2006 budget was $95 million.

The Indiana native had been deputy secretary of state and head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, to which he was appointed by President George Bush. USAID has an annual budget of roughly $9 billion.

In April 2007, ABC News reported he had used an out-call escort service described by federal prosecutors as a prostitution ring operated by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, also known as the "D.C. Madam." Tobias himself denied having sex with women from the agency, telling ABC News he only called "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage," and that he had recently switched to another service "with Central Americans."

Palfrey described her former firm, Pamela Martin and Associates, as a "sexual fantasy services" company whose women were instructed not to engage in sex with clients.

Tobias, who was honored last July as a "Living Legend" by the Indiana Historical Society, is the first choice of Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard to lead the airport authority, the newspaper reported. "Damn near irrelevant to the position" is how Ballard characterized the one-time abstinence czar's entanglement with the escort service, the paper reported.