What is Larry Flynt up to?

[npincus]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2007-06-03T155354Z_01_N03404804_RTRUKOC_0_US-WASHINGTON-HUSTLER.xml

Flynt is again offering a $1 million payday for anyone with verifiable evidence of extramarital relations with a member of Congress or high-ranking gov't official. His agenda in 1998,the last time he solicited sex-secrets, was clear- a counterstrike against the hypocrisy of the Republican Blowjob Inquisition (I still have my copy of The Flynt Report... a brilliant take down of the self-righteous oral Inquisitors).

But what is he up to now, nine years later? Does he plan to selectively expose the activities of those he considers hypocrites from either party? Does he plan to embarrass members of one particular political party (Repubs, hopefully) over another? I'd say this is about collecting ammo for the 2008 election. What's he up to?

:popcorn:



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hustler magazine is looking for some scandalous sex in Washington again -- and willing to pay for it.

"Have you had a sexual encounter with a current member of the United States Congress or a high-ranking government official?" read a full-page advertisement taken out by Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine in Sunday's Washington Post.

It offered $1 million for documented evidence of illicit intimate relations with a congressman, senator or other prominent officeholder. A toll-free number and e-mail address were provided.

The last time Flynt made such an offer was in October 1998 during the drive to impeach President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. I'm wondering why is he doing this now?

Do you think he's trying to re-open up the DC Madame case?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. The DC Madame was what came to my mind when I first saw this

It could be what's motivating him, or it could be that we're linking it because it's a recent sex scandal related to the WH.

[npincus]

8. Interesting... maybe he is baiting Cheney's hooker

to come out of hiding and collect a paycheck... assuming she can prove her encounter(s) with him. (eeeeeeew...)

Or... he's fishing around for the names of other gov't VIPs that ABC has chosen to protect by sitting on the story. VERY intersting... that may be it.

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Sounds like he's gotten exactly what he was seeking

Exposure

[mike_c]

3. I wonder how many millions he's willing to spend...?

Wow.

[TlalocW]

4. I used to have that as well

And I remember poor Bob Livingston getting teary-eyed (and spouting off righteous indignation that his life would be investigated as Clinton's had been) as his extra-marital affairs not only prevented him from being speaker of the house after Newt but also led to his resigning.

TlalocW

[EVDebs]

6. Year old article hints at why...and why M$M trail has gone cold

"It's all part of a growing ongoing investigation into corruption in defense and intelligence contracts, which already has sent former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham to prison and, legal sources say, may threaten others in Congress and the CIA."


FBI probes Watergate prostitution allegations
May 4, 2006
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12634250/

[AndyTiedye]

10. That's When Anyone Should Have Been Able to Tell the MSM is Own3d

Politicians getting hookers at the Watergate and they don't think it's a story? :wtf:

[npincus]

7. "The Flynt Report" (review from Salon archives):

http://www.salon.com/news/1999/03/26newsb.html



Just as the dirty laundry of the impeachment scandal had been tossed to the back of the nation's closet like a soiled blue Gap dress, out comes the Flynt Report, the long-awaited, nearly forgotten product of the porn mogul's $4 million investigation into the sex lives of the Republicans. With its blocky red and black Newsweek format and its deliciously gleeful headlines ("John E. Peterson: Sunday-School Teacher with Preying Hands," chortles one), it is a peculiarly riveting document, a cross between a slick mainstream glossy and a rabble-rousing Tom Paine pamphlet of the American Revolution.

The 82-page report makes a simple enough argument: Many of the Republicans who preached morality during the impeachment trial are hypocrites in their personal lives, and the public deserves to know this. In the service of this argument, however, the editors have presented such a wild blend of rhetoric, reporting and rumor that readers will sometimes feel Hustled by a new species of pornography -- political wanking at its lurid lowest. But they may nonetheless enjoy this new, candid and highly entertaining entry in the annals of American advocacy journalism, in which Rep. Henry Hyde is described as a "huge blood-swollen tick in a rumpled suit"; Rep. Bob Barr "could teach slippery behavior to a greased weasel," and Hyde, Indiana Rep. Dan Burton and Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth -- admitted adulterers all -- are referred to as "snap and salivat like one huge three-headed beast."

So what does the Flynt Report actually say that hasn't been said (and printed and broadcast and posted) already? That depends on who you are and how closely you have been following the private lives of the GOP. Allan MacDonell, Hustler's executive editor and the unnamed author of the majority of the report, says it's aimed at a readership that doesn't necessarily follow Washington politics. "We tried to write it in a very engaging, funny manner for the normal person to learn something about these politicians, and see conclusively that they were not motivated by moral values," he explains. His mother-in-law read early drafts, he said, to make sure it was written for people like her. "But for any kind of Beltway insider, there is not a lot of new information."

<snip>

Former Speaker-designate Robert Livingston and Barr get the most thorough attention, and though their foibles have been widely exposed, these profiles offer details that may surprise many readers. Barr's tale of adultery and abortion, for instance, gets a painstaking re-telling, and thoroughly illuminates the hypocrisy of the white-supremacist-loving Georgia congressman. For journalists who followed Flynt's original release of the story, the damning details -- Barr's asking his wife, who worked as his secretary, to arrange his lunch dates with his mistress, Jeri Dobbins, who became his next wife; his driving his wife to an abortion clinic, and paying for her abortion, while being rabidly "pro-life" -- are not news. But for the average reader, they will be. Flynt reproduces excerpts of the Barrs' divorce transcripts, which show Barr and Dobbins responding to questions about their affair by repeating "I decline to answer" over and over like a pair of autistic parrots. Barr insisted that comparing his refusal to tell the truth about his affair under oath with Clinton's legalistic acrobatics was like comparing apples to oranges, but the report quips: "The difference between Bill Clinton's truth-fudging and Bob Barr's refusal to answer honestly is the difference between a wormy Red Delicious and a rotten Granny Smith."

[meegbear]

9. I bought that when it came out ...

There was one funny/ironic section. He had one of the guys who writes dirty stories for Hustler read the Starr Report and review it, giving tips on how to make it more enticing.