About two weeks ago Gary Glenn, a conservative activist from Michigan - and no fan of Mitt Romney - wrote an open letter addressed to me expressing his concerns about the issue of pornography and the Marriott corporation.

As many of you know I recently took a job as Vice President of Communications for the Lighted Candle Society. LCS is a non-profit group founded by John Harmer and Ed Meese fighting the forces of pornography. Our ultimate mission is to bring civil litigation against the producers and distributors of pornography.

I was also appointed to Governor Romney's Faith and Values Committee. Gary Glenn saw the opportunity to fashion a blunt club and have a few swings. You see, in Gary's mind, the logic runs thus (paraphrasing): "Justin, as part of the Ligthed Candle Society you should be concerned about putting your weight behind Romney because Romney sat on a board of advisers to the Marriott Corporation and Marriott is one of the biggest distributors of pornography."

I was later interviewed by David Brody about the subject and he gave it a fair hearing. Many of my colleagues thought the question to be spurious. I too was a bit perplexed and felt that Gary was looking for another excuse to bash Romney (he's done this numerous times now). But I did not directly respond to Gary.

Instead, I knew something that Gary didn't... Governor Romney is the only major candidate willing to publically take action on this issue. I also knew that behind the scenes the Romney camp was going to spend actual dollars addressing this issue with a new TV ad.

With that said, I give you: "Ocean"


As I told the Brody File:

In this important fight against pornography there are those people who are determined to make enemies and affect zero change and there are those who propose to use their influence to create serious lasting change - Romney is in this latter camp…pure societal turnaround can only happen when people of influence find the right moment in time to lead change…In my opinion, Romney's record shows that he could very well effect that change to happen. The fact that he included a serious anti-pornography group on his Faith and Values committee suggests this as well.

Labels: pornography