If you want to silence Southern religious conservatives on the topic of pornography, make them complicit in a presidency that treats it as a legitimate business expense.
Two days ago, news broke that Stormy Daniels, the adult film star embroiled an alleged sex scandal involving President Donald Trump, has a two-day July gig at a strip club in the upper-crust, semi-Republican city of Brookhaven.
We say "alleged" because Trump has denied the encounter occurred. Yet skepticism is warranted, given our president's past statements on the sybaritic perquisites of celebrity and the fact that he has acknowledged a $130,000 keep-your-mouth-shut contract with Ms. Daniels, from which she is now attempting to escape.
Her act has been dubbed "Making Atlanta Great Again," just in case the connection slipped by you. Two performances on Sunday, July 22 -- two days before the Republican primary runoff for governor.
In decades past, we might have heard at least a token condemnation of Ms. Daniels' road show from the Moral Majority, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's vehicle, or the Christian Coalition, founded by Pat Robertson and operated by Ralph Reed.
But we've heard nary a "tsk tsk" in the last 48 hours. Because one can't attack this particular porn star without casting shade on the resident of the White House. One can rightfully attack the hypocrisy of former President Bill Clinton, but that is rather like lashing the royal whipping boy because one dare not touch the prince.
This is about more than Stormy Daniels. Last week, Republican U.S. Rep. Diane Black, who is running for governor of Tennessee, engaged in a closed conversation – later leaked, of course – with a group of ministers. In that session, Black posited that the availability of pornography was a root cause of gun violence in American schools.
What was most interesting was the private nature of her statement. Black has not said this publicly – possibly because the linkage is spurious, but that wouldn't have prohibited a Tennessee member of Congress from openly making the connection in years past.
However, a GOP candidate for governor, in need of Trump's blessing, might be more circumspect.
Last week, Ralph Reed, who has gone on to establish the Faith and Freedom Coalition, engaged in a videotaped discussion with the New York Times in which he defended the transactional nature of the religious conservative relationship with President Trump. The YouTube clip closed with a statement from Reed that would have been foreign to conservative Christians only 10 years ago:
"The last thing you or anyone else wants is a church-based political movement whose primary function is to be the moral policeman of society and decide who is and who isn't righteous enough to govern."
Which leads us to this tidbit sent out by the Gallup organization this morning. We do not know whether to classify it as cause or effect:
Forty-three percent of Americans now believe pornography is "morally acceptable," a seven-percentage-point increase from last year and the highest level since Gallup first began measuring moral perceptions of pornography in 2011.
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Two Georgia lawmakers have expressed dramatically different reactions to Samantha Bee, the host of the TBS program who made vulgar comments about Ivanka Trump last week.
State Rep. Trey Kelley, R-Cedartown, penned a letter to TBS honchos urging them to fire the comedy show host for her "despicable and hate-filled" comments.
"You can make clear Turner Broadcasting will not stand for these types of remarks by removing Ms. Bee and her show from your programming," wrote Kelley.
His Democratic colleague, state Rep. Scott Holcomb, is a Bee friend who has been featured several times on her program. He said her apology for her remark is sufficient.
"I think it raises important questions about what is in and out of bounds," he added on Twitter. "And one's view of in or out of bounds should not be contingent on the speaker.
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Two tidbits from the Republican gubernatorial campaign of Brian Kemp:
-- U.S. Rep. Jody Hice has endorsed Kemp's campaign, calling him a "man of character, integrity and unshakable faith." We believe it's the first congressional endorsement he's won.
-- We've told you about runoff rival Casey Cagle's attack on Kemp for a Kentucky canola pressing operation gone sour, leaving a group of farmers in a highly litigious move. We asked Kemp spokesman Ryan Mahoney how much influence the secretary of state had in that business.
Mahoney reports that Kemp’s stake was about 8 percent, and that he was one of more than 30 investors. In other words, he didn’t have majority say in the operation.
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On his Facebook page, exiting state Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, who failed to scratch in last month's GOP primary for secretary of state, reported Monday that the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of the Colorado baker who refused to provide a wedding cake to a gay couple is nothing to celebrate:
The decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop as I read it simply says that the baker couldn't get a fair hearing before the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
It has zero impact on the need for a RFRA here in Georgia.
Nor does it address the separate question of what happens when free exercise claims collide with LGBT protected class claims….
McKoon has been a champion for “religious liberty” legislation in the state Capitol.
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The following headline in today's Macon Telegraph has absolutely nothing to do with politics. We simply include it to uplift humanity everywhere: "Macon woman turns 105, credits chocolate."
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U.S. senators, fresh off the Memorial Day recess, were greeted in the Capitol Monday with throngs of reporters asking about the latest Trump news -- his pronouncement on Twitter that he could pardon himself.
Trump ally Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, had a curt response when asked about it by CNN: "If I were President of the United States and I had a lawyer that told me I could pardon myself, I think I would hire a new lawyer."
Georgia’s David Perdue, another Trump friend, dodged.
“Well, I don’t know that he’s been accused of anything yet,” Perdue said with a half chuckle on Monday. “I don’t have any take on that. I don’t have any take on that, sorry.”
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David Perdue did have more to say about the latest tit-for-tat on tariffs. The Republican, you may remember, spoke out against Trump's move to impose duties on imported steel and aluminum, but he said Monday that Congress should not get involved yet to stop the tariffs. "I'd like to see this play out before Congress gets involved in a meaningful way," he told reporters on Capitol Hill.
“The administration is doing a good job of telling the world, ‘hey, we’re still supportive, but we have to have a level playing field.’ If we send mixed messages about that, that confuses them about the United States’ negotiating position. That’s what I’m afraid of.”
