Republican party platform to target 'hardcore' porn

Despite their presumptive presidential candidate being endorsed by a porn star, a conservative media watchdog group says the Republican party platform will look to get tough on what it calls "the scourge of hardcore pornography."

"A change in the Republican Party Platform to target illegal adult pornography is an exceedingly positive development that will protect children, as well as families from the scourge of hardcore pornography," Morality In Media (MIM) president Patrick A. Trueman said in a statement Monday.

Trueman credited Family Research Council head Tony Perkins for introducing what it called tougher new language into the platform; whereas before only child pornography was considered illegal, he says, it will now read "Current laws on all forms of pornography and obscenity need to be vigorously enforced." Trueman says, erroneously, that it is currently illegal to distribute "hardcore pornography" on the Internet, on hotel and motel televisions, on cable and satellite television and in retail shops.

The announcement also comes on the (spiked) heels of the strip clubs near their national convention are bracing for an upswing in business, with many dancers expecting to make at least $1,000 a night during next week's event.

“Take a look in here," one club manager told Agence France-Presse last week. "This is what we call our presidential suite. This one rents out for like $500 an hour. As a Republican, we figured that's really not a problem with them because they're normally known to have a big cash flow."

Earlier this month, party front-runner Mitt Romney got some unsolicited praise from Jenna Jameson, a former adult movie star, despite past promises to install anti-pornography filters on every new computer sold in the country.

"I'm very looking forward to a Republican being back in office," Jameson said at the time. "When you're rich, you want a Republican in office."

Though Romney had vowed as recently as 2007 to implement his porn filter policy, but he drew criticism from not only progressive commentators like Lawrence O'Donnell, but fellow conservatives, who ripped him for not doing such a thing when he was chairman of the board audit committee for the Marriott hotel chain.

"Even though Romney has profited from pornography through his investments — including through his hotel investments where pay-per-view porn is a big profit center — Mitt says he wants to limit your freedom," O'Donnell said on MSNBC last month. "He wants to limit some Americans' freedom to search for porn."

[Adult film photo via Agence France-Presse]