Republican Senator Trent Lott caused a sensation today when he announced his early retirement. Insisting that he's in good health, but neglecting to elaborate on why he's quitting five years early, Lott's revelation led some to speculate he's accepted a more lucrative private sector gig.

Big Head DC, however, wonders whether Lott's telling the whole truth.

Update: There's more finger pointing and scandal after the jump!


The way BHDC tells it, Lott may have been involved with an escort named Benjamin Nichols:

Nicholas told Big Head DC today via e-mail that he didn’t want to go on the record to talk about his dealings with Lott, because, said Nicholas, “Trent is going through his fair share of scrutiny right now and I don’t want to add to it.” However, e-mail and other records confirm that the two have met on at least two occasions.

“All I can say at this point is no comment,” Nicholas told us. “It’s the professional thing for me to do.”

In a subsequent e-mail message, Nicholas confirmed that another publication is working on a story about a “possible relationship” between Lott and himself, but Nicholas also “politely declined” an interview for that story.

If Nicholas' name sounds familiar, it should: he previously spoke out against Ted Haggard's boy toy, Mike Jones, for airing the preacher man's dirty laundry.

UPDATE: Ben Nicholas, the rent boy in question, denies the Big Head DC's Lott allegations. Via Slog:

It looks like a Washington DC-based blog called BigHeadDC is making claim that there was (or, is) a working relationship between myself and Senator Trent Lott. There are falsely pieced-together quotes that serve no purpose other than to sensationalize a completely fabricated scoop.

I will continue to offer a great sense of confidentiality to the people I see. I have not, nor have I ever seen or had contact with Senator Trent Lott. It’s as simple as that. It never happened.

Some of our sources in DC, meanwhile, claim that more mainstream media are working on a similar story, which would support Big Head DC's claim that another publication's working on this nearly banal scandal.

Meanwhile, as Radar points out, Big Head DC ain't the most reputable source:

Rob Capriccioso, a Washington, D.C., blogger and sometime (now former) Radar freelancer, reported on his own blog, bigheaddc.com, [November 11th] that Sam Donaldson's phone number appears on the D.C. Madam's supposed client list—the record of outgoing phone calls that Deborah Jean Palfrey made while operating the high-end-hooker operation that serviced Sen. David Vitter and other D.C. potentates.
…
What he didn't report is that Palfrey told him, repeatedly, in no uncertain terms, that her single telephone call to Donaldson had nothing to do with prostitution.

Anyway you cut this mess, at least one person's pant are totally on fire.