Does Mitt Romney have a porn problem? The founder of Bain Capital is running for the Republican presidential nomination as a conservative candidate. But some party conservatives question his reliability on issues such as abortion, stem-cell research and even gun control. And now porn.
The trouble, it seems, starts in a Marriott hotel room. Between 1993 and 2002, Romney sat on the board of Marriott. Last year he reported a campaign donation of $80,000, which was arranged by J.W. Marriot. But for some this money might be tainted by its association with pornography.
According to Chris Kelly at the Huffington Post, Marriott has made “millions of dollars off in-room porn. Millions and millions. And millions.” He writes that some conservatives are “grumbling” that Romney’s affiliation with the hotel chain compromises him as a “values” candidate. Films available to guests at the Marriott include titles such as “Women in Uniform Specials” and “Three Women & a Resort.” (Actually, Kelly gives a list of a dozen or so titles that we’re not printing here for fear we’ll get caught out by anti-raunch web-filters.)
But is this a real issue? A quick search of the web and phone calls to a few conservative activists could not turn up any prominent conservatives or organizations—or “right wing anti-porn wackos” as Kelly calls them—who are eager to shoot down Romney’s candidacy over Marriot’s porn revenues. We’re sure that if pressed on the issue, some conservatives probably would say that they were bothered by this somewhat tenuous connection between Romney and pornography. But this “grumbling” that Kelly points out doesn’t seem to have gone through the trouble of actually happening yet. It seems to be more of a case of wishful thinking on the part of some liberal opponents of Romney’s candidacy.
Disqualifying candidates because they worked for or served on the boards of companies with substantial revenues from pornography would exile a large portion of corporate America and Wall Street from public life. AT&T, Time Warner, General Motors, EchoStar, Liberty Media, Marriott International, Hilton and the News Corporation all make money from pornography, according to a New York Times article from October of 2000.
Mitt Romney's Porn Problem [Huffington Post]
Posted by anonymous, Jun 19, 2007 12:00PM
Fucking commies. Why are Americans so fucking hypocritical when it comes to sex? The US porn industry rakes in about $9 billion annually from consumers,. Presumably these aren't all horny young men renting dirty videos from the local video store. And yet Romney's association with a hotel chain that happens to feature in-room porn access is a problem? WTF?! In short, it's not Romney who has a "porn problem," it's the left-wing extremists at the Huffington Post.