"We like sex so much we do it full time"

Romney Signs Anti-Porn Pledge, Ignores Demand To Return Contribution From ‘Hardcore’ Pornographer

Last month, three of the four current Republican presidential contenders responded to a survey from the group Morality in Media’s War on Illegal Pornography campaign. They all agreed to get aggressive with violators of federal obscenity laws if elected president. Mitt Romney specifically said he would be for “strict enforcement of our nation’s obscenity laws, as well as the promotion of parental software controls that guard our children from Internet pornography.”

But campaign filings show that, last September, Romney accepted the maximum campaign contribution of $2,500 from Daniel Staton, the chairman of Friend Finder Networks Inc. that owns —among several other properties — Penthouse, BDSM sites like Bondage.com and BDSM.com, and LikeMyNudePhoto.com. Romney also accepted $2,000 from Staton and an additional $2,300 from Friend Finder Network CEO Marc Bell during his failed 2008 presidential campaign.

Of course, Penthouse and the handful of similar companies overseen by Staton are top targets of the War on Illegal Pornography campaign, and would suffer dramatically under the “strict enforcement of our nation’s obscenity laws” that Romney promised to uphold.

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So far Mitt Romney has run a careful, disciplined campaign that has avoided the slightest whiff of impropriety. So why has the former Mormon bishop taken the maximum possible primary donation ($2,500) from Daniel Staton, the chairman of the board of the company that owns Penthouse? This raises embarrassing questions for the GOP frontrunner, who is already facing scrutiny from social conservatives for a number of reasons, not the least of which is his attenuated connection to the pornography industry through his tenure on the board of directors at Marriott, which has been the subject of scrutiny for making adult movies available on pay per view for hotel guests. For a candidate so meticulous that he found it inappropriate to campaign at Pizza Ranch because that socially conservative pizza chain's founders included a sex offender, this marks a rare gaffe.

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