Morals of a Muckraker

"The idea behind this is, I'm desperately strapped for cash," says Palfrey, noting that she has made $3,250 since October. "I'm also doing a book because I need to get the truth out."

Moldea, who had started doing some minor consulting for Flynt, tried to put him together with Palfrey so they could join forces in hunting for sexual hypocrites. When that fell apart, Moldea quit the Hustler operation. But he tried again in the June memo.

"Unfortunately, when I came to you with Jeane Palfrey, you blew her off," Moldea wrote. "With respect, I believe that was a mistake. . . . You and Jeane can make history."

After a lunch at the Ritz-Carlton, Moldea and Flynt were back in business, with the reporter charging $175 an hour. Flynt offered another million-dollar reward for information about the sexual high jinks of public officials. And when Flynt mentioned in an MSNBC interview who was heading the investigation, he dragged Moldea out of the shadows.

"What are you doing? You just put a target on my back," Moldea recalls telling him.

In early July, after a federal judge lifted a restraining order on the release of Palfrey's phone records, her lawyer gave Moldea a 48-hour jump before other reporters got access to the material. When Moldea found Vitter's number, he called Flynt. Moldea quickly produced a memo on the senator's history of championing moral values and the sanctity of marriage.

Now Moldea is knee-deep in sexual allegations, and with Clinton's wife seeking the presidency, Moldea is again warning darkly of conspiracies.

"I have it on very, very good authority that major opposition research has already been conducted on Bill Clinton, and it's going to be a massive smear campaign against him," he says. A group of former intelligence officers, he says, is "going to try to cripple Hillary through Bill."

Dan Moldea, in short, is facing the world alone -- except for his longtime girlfriend, an elementary school teacher -- and that, it seems, is the way he likes it.

"I have been out there battling by myself," he says. "It hasn't been pretty, that's for sure."