The President and Pornography

There’s an old saying: “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” Never has that cliche been more apropos than with America’s current chief executive, Bill Clinton.

He has been in the political “bed” with a wide assortment of ideological degenerates. Seemingly, he has exhausted his imagination in promoting the sorts of wickedness that rot the vitals of a nation. His personal conduct has been a blight upon our beloved land, and his political maneuvering for the sake of popularity has descended to deplorable depths.

While several presidents have engaged in adulterous conduct, it is doubtful that any occupant so openly base has inhabited the White House during its long history. And the president packs a lot of accompanying baggage.

Here is a case in point: Democratic party official Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Orange County months ago scheduled a fund-raising event to be conducted this week in connection with the Democratic convention in Los Angeles.

Guess where it was to be be held? At Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion (West). Some Democrats became upset about the affair and Sanchez was threatened with various sanctions. Eventually she caved in and agreed to a different location—much to Hefner’s consternation.

Even Vice President Gore indicated his displeasure. He didn’t like the “image” such would convey, especially after it was determined that “family values” would become an issue in the Democratic campaign strategy.

The vice president is sort of a “late-bloomer” in the moral outrage department. At the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Mr. Gore declared that his partner in the White House would go down as one of the greatest presidents in history.

Moreover, the vice president himself has accepted campaign contributions recently from both Hefner and his daughter. According to an article that appeared in last week’s Los Angeles Times, Richard Rosenzaeig, executive vice president of Playboy, expressed surprise at all the uproar. He said, “We have supported President Clinton, we’ve supported Gore, we’ve supported a number of other Democratic candidates over the years.”

This is but another indication of the friendly relationship that the Clinton administration has formed with the pornography trade.

A revealing article appears in the August issue of the American Family Association Journal. Authored by James Lambert, the piece is titled, “Clinton, Reno give pornographers free ride.”

Lambert, who is author of the book, Porn in America, charged:

Clearly, the current administration and Justice Department (DOJ) have been good to the porn industry. That is why porn entrepreneurs have steadfastly supported President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Attorney General Janet Reno.

It is widely known that porn moguls Bob Guccioni (Penthouse_), Larry Flint (Hustler_), and Hefner (Playboy) are avid Clinton backers. In the May issue of Playboy magazine there appeared a photograph of Hefner and Clinton standing together, with the President’s arm around Hef’s shoulder—like peas in a porn-pod. The photo was reproduced in the printed AFA Journal.

David Schlesinger, a major pornography video distributor, proudly boasts, “President Clinton is a total supporter of the [porn video] industry and he’s always been on our team . . . . He hasn’t tried to quash it the way the Republicans did back in the 1980s.”

It is a well-documented fact that federal obscenity prosecutions have woefully declined during the eight years of the present administration. A Syracuse University report, produced in 1997, indicated that obscenity prosecutions have plummeted by eighty-six percent in the Clinton-Gore era.

Lambert also provides testimony that Janet Reno, during her tenure as Florida’s attorney general of Dade County, was extremely lax in prosecuting pornography. A former FBI Agent who worked in Florida is on record as saying that Reno “was never interested in taking on and prosecuting illegal obscenity” (emphasis added). Other law-enforcement officials were equally frustrated with Reno, who transported her live-and-let-live philosophy into her federal position.

Recently, Steve Largent, the former football star who now represents the state of Oklahoma in Congress, said, “The Justice Department admitted [in a recent hearing pertaining to Internet porn] that it places no priority on stopping illegal material, having prosecuted not one perpetrator of Internet obscenity since 1996.”

It is not at all difficult to deduce why our current president has no interest in pursuing the smut business, which, incidentally, is known to have strong ties to organized crime.

On a personal note, let me emphasize that this essay has nothing to do with politics; it has everything to do with morality. The author is neither a Republican nor a Democrat. He is simply a Christian.

People who are interested in the welfare of this nation need to be informed as to where our leaders’ sympathies lie, and decent folks need to exert their influence for godliness by speaking out against evils of this nature. “Righteousness exalts a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). When a nation forgets God, it’s demise cannot be far away (Psalm 9:17).

(Note: As this article was in preparation, World Net Daily [an electronic news magazine] broke a story relating to another major White House scandal.

According to investigative reporter Paul Sperry, a “massive hard-core internet pornography” operation has been discovered “within the White House” [8/9/00]. This account was featured on several major news programs during the latter part of last week. Another indicator of the depravity of those associated with our current administration.

Let us pray that whoever is granted the next term in office will restore some measure of dignity and honor to our highest office.)