Posted: January 3, 2013 at 9:09 pm
GOP “Erotic Massage” Parlor Landlord to Represent Billings on Capitol Hill
A hard-core, conservative Republican, religious city council member, who was caught doing business with an erotic massage parlor, will represent Montana’s largest town at the National League of Cities, KTVQ is reporting.
As a member of the committee, Councilman Pitman will play a key role in shaping NLC’s policy positions, while advocating on behalf of America’s cities and towns on Capitol Hill, with the Administration, and at home.
The Billings Gazette revealed last year that Billings city councilman Denis Pitman made a tidy living as a commercial landlord, by renting space to the Fuji Spa.
On its website, Fuji Spa described itself as a massage parlor, spa and “escort business,” which offers “table showers” and “beautiful asian massage girls”, is open 24 hours, and accepts cash only. Patrons who visit the premises are also advised to please enter through the rear entrance of the establishment, and note that there is an ATM on site.
The screenshot below depicts the current Fuji Spa ad. It shows the “spa” is still located at the same address and is dated December of 2012.
There are, in fact, many such establishments in Billings, as you can see from the Billings Gazette’s special advertising section devoted to them. Such massage parlors are legally okay. It’s not like these places are brothels, after all.
And this must have been Pitman’s line of reasoning, because Pitman, by all appearances, is your basic religious conservative piece of work. He brags about his conservative street cred (says he is “the most conservative member of the city council,”), is a big-time Tea Partier, went to seminaries for his schooling, and is actually a man of the cloth. (He calls himself Reverend Pitman.)
He advertises his services as a theologist and “non-denominational Christian minister” who, according to his own website, will perform religious ceremonies and rites for a small fee.
And he is all family values, all the time. Check out his website. He’s a family man for sure. On his Facebook page he posts family-oriented advice to his public–messages such as “Little Fockers is not appropriate viewing for anyone in my family except me and my wife.”
To be clear, there is nothing at all to suggest that he has ever collected rent in the form of a table shower or massage. And also, it must be noted that he once rented space to a medical marijuana provider, and took heat for it, and defended himself by saying that as long as the activities on the premises are legal, he would rent it to the tenant.
Perhaps Pitman will represent Billings at the national league as a libertarian and not as a conservative, who believes drugs and sex, even if proferred as goods for sale, must be off limits to government regulation or religious judgment. Probably not.