Our kind of guy in the A.G.'s office

By Tim Redmond

The United States Justice Department has a long history of trying to turn porn into a crime. I still have my personal copy of the Meese Commission report [1], which includes perhaps my favorite line in the history of governmental bureaucratise:

"We will now address the problem of mere nudity." (A lot of that going around.)

So I have to say, I was pleased to see that the Obama administration is close to giving the Number Two job at Justice to a guy Goodvibes describes as "pro-porn, pro-choice." [2]

David Ogden would probably use other words to describe himself; he's a widely respected lawyer [3]who served in a number of jobs in the Clinton Administration. But, oh, he has the right-wing up in arms [4].

Imagine: He actually represented the American Library Association. And he represented the National Association of Social Workers in arguing that gay people still face discrimination in America.

Oh, and yes: He has represented Playboy. He once argued that it was okay for the Library of Congress to use federal money to print Playboy articles in Braille. (Interesting concept, there; I wonder what they did with the pictures.)

So he's hardly a crazy radical, but he's our kind of guy. And that would be a very nice change in Washington.