In case Paul Wolfowitz's pay-raise problems haven't satisfied your appetite for scandal, here's a new name to get familiar with: Randall L Tobias, who is (or was) the US deputy secretary of state responsible for foreign aid. On Friday, Tobias submitted his resignation - citing "personal reasons" - after confirming to ABC News that he was a customer of a Washington, DC escort service charged with running a prostitution ring.

Of course, like a latter-day Bill Clinton, Tobias (who is married) insists that there was "no sex" involved: he simply used the escort service to "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage". In fact, Tobias continued, he has recently been using another service, "with Central Americans", to provide the massages.

Tobias's cell phone number was among thousands given to ABC news by the woman who ran the escort service, Jeanne Palfrey. And Palfrey, who faces federal charges, now swears that she will call a number of prominent Washington men to testify at her trial. "I'm sure as heck not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone four to eight years, because I'm shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever," she told ABC News.

There is already much speculation about who will be called. But the scandal is perhaps most ironic for the deputy secretary of whatever: as the Bush administration's "AIDS czar", Tobias was known (and often criticised) for promoting abstinence over condom use to halt the spread of the disease.

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