Third Way Dispatch

Last year, the National Republican Congressional Committee had two very special guests at their gala dinner honoring President Bush: porn star Mary Carey and adult film producer Mark Kulkis. The NRCC noted that the two had ponied up their dough – $2,500 each – so they were happy to have them. Indeed, so were many of the gala guests – an NRCC spokesman said he was “surprised by the number of people who wanted their pictures made with her last year.”

All of that should have been just a wee bit embarrassing, given the pious posturing about family values that we hear from the President and his political allies.

But apparently, it wasn’t embarrassing enough – Roll Call reports today that Ms. Carey is coming back for this year’s presidential gala. The sequel – NRCC Party Girl Two – is out this week at a massive Washington ballroom near you.

Some in Congress are taking a different approach to pornography. Senator Blanche Lincoln and a number of her colleagues have a bill that would require real child access prevention measures on Internet porn sites and would impose a massive excise tax on online porn. We think that’s the right approach to online pornography – regulation and taxation, not invitation (to dinner with the President). (Read our Message Memo on online pornography.)