Former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer found himself in the centre of a news hurricane on Thursday. It began with a news story about dubious businessmen and "busty hookers," and rapidly escalated to disavowals by the Conservative Party of Canada and threats of a lawsuit.

The news story, by Kevin Donovan, appeared in The Star. It described in detail a dinner Jaffer attended along with the businessmen and women employed by an escort agency called Cachet Ladies.

The report spread across the media and blogosphere, producing almost equally rapid responses from anonymous Conservatives who said Jaffer has no influence in the party. They also urged Jaffer to remove the Conservative logo from his personal website.

By mid-afternoon Thursday, Patrick Glémaud of Green Power Generation Corporation, a company Jaffer founded, was threatening a lawsuit against The Star.

On Thursday afternoon Jaffer's site was accessible (minus Conservative logo) but not the site of Green Power Generation.

Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.