One of the principle defenders of the Bush administration’s international abstinence-only HIV-prevention program has resigned after his personal cell phone number turned up on the list of a high-class escort service.

Randall L. Tobias was the former head of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and was named to lead Bush’s PEPFAR AIDS initiative in July 2003. He was put in charge of all international assistance programs for the U.S. government in January 2006.

In his government positions, the married man and father of four had defended both the abstinence-only policy and the “be faithful” portion of the ABC program for HIV prevention. The only question remaining is whether or not he fulfilled the “C” part – if you can’t follow A and B, then use a condom.

Tobias also has enforced a policy requiring that contractors and grantees sign a pledge to condemn prostitution. Several organizations involved in HIV prevention say that policy limits their effectiveness in reaching out to sex workers with prevention activities. They have challenged it in court and the matter is under appeal.

So it should come as no surprise that when he was caught with his pants down, and ABC News called to verify that his phone number was among those on the list of clients for the woman dubbed by the media as “the D.C. Madame,” Tobias quickly resigned. The April 27 resignation cited “personal reasons.”

Tobias has claimed that he only received a massage from the women whose services he hired. It is the same defense used by the evangelical Rev. Ted Haggard when caught using the services of a male escort.

Federal prosecutors have indicted the “madame,” Deborah J. Palfrey of Vallejo, Calif., on charges of racketeering. They claim that her company, Pamela Martin & Associates, engaged in prostitution.

Palfrey disputes that. On her Web site, she said the company “functioned as a high-end adult fantasy firm which offered legal sexual and erotic

services.”