San Francisco Chronicle, 6/7/07 - Hustler [porn - adults only] publisher Larry Flynt -- just days after posting a $1 million bounty for verifiable information on the sexual exploits of U.S. Congress members and political leaders -- says he's already been deluged by more than 200 leads pouring in from around the country, "80 percent of them on Republicans."

"I'm not interested in exposing anyone's sex life," Flynt said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "It's the hypocrisy I'm after."

The California-based porn king, who heads up a profitable empire that includes the infamous skin mag Hustler and edgier publications such as Barely Legal -- as well as a thriving Hustler Club and casinos chain -- started a stir this week in political circles.

He posted a full-page ad in the Washington Post on Sunday that offered a cool $1 million for any "documented evidence of intimate relations with a Congressperson, Senator or other prominent officeholder," information that must be verified and published in Hustler.

In the run-up to the 2008 elections, Flynt's campaign to urge Americans to drop a dime on dallying politicians could get interesting because he's got a track record.

In 1998, he made a similar offer when former President Bill Clinton faced impeachment by outraged Republicans after the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

The result: GOP House Speaker-elect Bob Livingston resigned after Flynt prepared to go public with an informant's details of his illicit affair. Flynt also released an affidavit by the wife of then-GOP Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia -- an anti-abortion conservative -- in which she said her husband paid for her abortion and then took on a mistress.

"Everybody -- because I'm a civil libertarian -- thinks I'm going after Republicans. That's not true," he said.

Flynt said he expects "2 to 4 percent" of the leads to develop into solid publishable information and wouldn't name names; but he's looking into, among others, "a couple of (congressmen) who are gay and they're voting against every piece of legislation that would adversely affect gays."

Flynt's interest in politics is no passing fancy. He ran as a Republican for president against Ronald Reagan and more recently carried the banner as "the smut peddler who cares" as the Democratic candidate who came in seventh among the more than 100 hopefuls in the 2003 gubernatorial recall election in California -- a contest won by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.

These days, he says he has got no intentions to get into any race.

But Flynt weighed in this week on what he hailed as a "good idea," the trend of major porn stars endorsing U.S. presidential candidates. (For those keeping score: Jenna Jameson, star of "The New Devil in Miss Jones," has expressed her admiration for Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Savanna Samson of "Flasher" fame was quoted in the New York Post on Monday as going gaga for Rudy Giuliani.)

Flynt, subject of the popular biopic "The People vs. Larry Flynt," says he's fully prepared to be the focus of conservatives who will unload their criticism on him with his latest offer for political dirt.

Livingston, he recalled, publicly called him a "bottom-feeder."

Flynt's response: "Yeah, that's right -- and look what I've found when I got down there.' "

Also ...

US Congress Gets Complimentary Hustler Magazine

The Salt Lake Tribune, 2/16/06 - The porn magazine Hustler [adults only] arrives every month at your congressman's office.

Tucked in a conservative-looking manila envelope, the latest edition of the magazine goes to all 535 members of Congress — free of charge.

Most members don't want it, and it usually gets thrown in the trash. But, like clockwork, it keeps coming, despite efforts to have it stop.

Several members of Congress have sued to make it stop, only to lose. Because the public must be able to seek redress from Congress means they have to take it. But that doesn't mean they have to be happy about it.

"It's a disgusting abuse of the system," Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, says. "It's a nasty, tricky little thing to do by a person with no conscience."

It's not exactly clear when the magazines were first sent to congresspersons, but it's been at least two decades. And publisher Larry Flynt isn't going to stop.

"I felt that they should be informed with what's going on in the rest of the world," Flynt said, deadpanning during an interview. "Some of them didn't appreciate it much." But, "I haven't had any plans to quit."

It doesn't surprise him that some members don't want the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based publication, which he describes as a "humor magazine" and one that deals with "a lot of political and social satire."

"I would never force a subscription on someone who didn't want it," Flynt said, except for members of Congress who are public servants.

He doesn't mind that the ones who are actually opening the envelopes aren't the members of Congress but young interns.

"I'm sure the interns are over 18," Flynt said. "Those guys need some help getting through puberty anyway."

Interns for Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, are trained to distinguish the nudie magazine's envelope from the other mail and throw it away, says chief of staff Scott Parker. "So every time we happen to get one, it ends up in the trash pretty instantly," Parker said.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, says it is offensive that his staffers have to see the publication when opening the mail.

"It's immediately deposited in an outside trash bin, so no one else has to be offended by it," Matheson said. "It's insulting behavior on the part of the publisher, but not surprising."

Daniel Weiss, a senior analyst for media and sexuality for the conservative religious group Focus on the Family, says that members of Congress who don't want the mailings should work with the Postal Service to make them stop. And if that doesn't work, they should ask the Justice Department to investigate whether the magazine is obscene and have it blocked.

"It seems like Flynt's trying to stick it to Congress," Weiss said. "I don't know what I'd call it. Childish, perhaps."

Others in the sexually oriented business industry, though, think it's a good idea.

"I have to respect his tenacity," says Tom Hymes, a spokesman for the adult industry trade group Free Speech Coalition. "This is vintage Larry Flynt. And he certainly has a flair for publicity."

For now, it's a standoff: Flynt will dutifully continue to mail the magazine to Congress, and Congress will dutifully continue to trash it.