Phil Gramm May Be Gone, But His Porn Lives On

Phil Gramm's recent disparaging of "a nation of whiners" complaining about a "mental recession" did more than offend the sensibilities of economically struggling Americans. His gaffe also served as a reminder that McCain had appointed one of the most reactionary, venal, and destructive political figures in recent times as his top econ man. By Sunday, the damage to the McCain campaign had grown so severe it announced that Gramm's role had been significantly reduced.

Phil Gramm attempted to invest $15,000 in "Truck Stop Women." His money ultimately helped produce a film portraying Richard Nixon wandering nude around the White House.

Gramm was an accident waiting to happen. Indeed, his gaffe represents little more than a scrap in the massive heap of wreckage he has left in his wake. Gramm's own presidential campaign in 1996 was among his most high-profile casualties. In order to win a whopping total of 8 delegates, the charisma-challenged Gramm had to spend $20 million, or about $2.5 million per delegate. This experience curiously translated into a job as one of McCain's key political advisors.

But first, Gramm returned to the Senate, where he was lobbied intensely by one of his major campaign contributors, Enron. Enron enjoyed easy access to Gramm's office; the senator's wife served on Enron's board of directors and Ken Lay was his 1992 campaign co-chair. Gramm rewarded his financial angels in 2000, slipping the "Commodity Futures Modernization Act" into a omnibus spending bill just as Congress headed off for summer vacation. His amendment instantly enabled the creation of a shadow banking system -- "weapons of financial destruction" in the words of Warren Buffet -- that directly contributed to the current mortgage foreclosure crisis. Millions of Americans have suffered as a result of Gramm's machinations.

While the destruction Gramm has caused is felt across the country, little is known about the seedy business schemes that preceded his political career. Before Gramm joined the Christian Coalition's Ralph Reed to call for the defunding of the NEA, before he attacked an opponent for taking money from a gay rights group, and before he was interviewed by the white supremacist Southern Partisan magazine, Gramm was an avidly active investor in soft-core pornography movies.

Gramm's journey into porn began in 1973, when his brother-in-law, George Caton, rushed to tell him about an exciting low-budget soft-core production called "Truck Stop Women." A promo poster for the film boasted of its buxom stars: "No Rig Was Too Big For Them To Handle." Caton, who was in charge of fundraising for the production, asked Gramm to become an investor. To entice his brother-in-law, Caton showed him scenes of Playboy Playmate of the year Claudia Jennings displaying her bare essentials (she is naked throughout much of the film).

These scenes "really got Phil titillated," Caton told journalist John Judis in 1995. Gramm enthusiastically cut Caton a check for $15,000. Because the film was oversold, however, Caton returned his brother-in-law's money, offering him an investment opportunity in an upcoming feature.

The following year, Gramm sent Caton a check for $15,000, this time to finance the production of "Beauty Queens," a soft-core flick about pageant judges having sex with contestants. But at the last moment, the director of "Beauty Queens," Mark Lester, decided to shelve his production to make the sequel to his "Tricia's Wedding," a comedy starring the drag queen troupe, The Cockettes.

Gramm contributed at least $7500 towards the sequel, a satire of the Nixon White House called "White House Madness" that featured the crazed president wandering around the White House in the nude. Gramm never saw that money again. Shot in ten days on a soundstage crudely modeled after the Oval Office, "White House Madness" tanked at the box office.

Like the rest of Gramm's endeavors, his soft-core porn career was a complete disaster.

Comments

[BarryChamplain]

It's okay. He's a Republican.


... but I do understand that Barack Obama once lived in a neighborhood that had a porn theater on the outskirts.

One full hour of in-depth coverage of that, tonight on MSNBC (and the full "Morning Joe", tomorrow!); two hours with Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper, on CNN; the remainder of this and next week on Faux News.



("Big Rig"... ROFLMFAO! :-)

[C65]

So What?

[Stretchumall]

Question: Is there a way to strip retired and (or) retiring politicians of their pentions?

If so, how does one proceed in this process?

There are soo many that do not deserve theirs and this is one of them.

Stretchumall

[hippynanainblingland]

stretchumall: I SO agree with you. Even better, those pensions should not be automatic, there should be a customer (that's us) review to determine elegibility.

[swkidder]

Nice point ... and so true. I remember Dubyah saying that he had committed to being the one to take "weapons of mass destruction" out of the hands of outlaw regimes. He's about 5 months away from doing so in the United States ... which I imagine makes "Mission Accomplished?"

[MrJoyboy]

"The way to find out what someone on the religious-right is into is to listen to what they rail against the most, and therein lies what they do with their private time."

Bush rails against "terrists". I guess your theory holds true.

[DarkWitch]

Best buddies with the bin Ladens. Nuff said.

[MsLiz]

I wish this had been revealed about Phil Gramm when he was a dominant figure in the Congress.

BTW, if he is such a failure, how come he is filthy rich? Crime?

[RatgurlSD]

Porn.

[kenbomc]

Gramms advice to McSame; stop the whining -by porn.

I bet the conservaqtive base will love this one about; Gramm 'the porn man' -lol

[Forester]

We got us a convoy good buddy! Got your ears on Rubber Ducky?

[SeekerOne]

From porn producer to Christian Coalition: I'm sure he had an authentic conversion. I can't believe that Gramm would've used the religious right for his own political gain. Surely not.

[Raymondf]

Where can I get one?

[watcher269]

If Graham was doing these movies today - being the Republican he is - the movie would star MEN!

[MrPragmatic]

Not that there is anything wrong with that!

[indypete]

Closet Seinfeld fan?

[LAR1969]

With Larry Craig - starring as...himse­lf in Airport Luvin.

[ibsteve2u]

And yet there are still people who think today's Republicans hold ANYTHING to be of more value than their money.

I wouldn't doubt for a minute that Gramm toted up his losses on his porn ventures on piece of paper hidden between the pages of his Bible while in church.

[DarkWitch]

And deducted it from his taxes.

[GerryS]

those movies and a bag of popcorn suprise--

sounds like a toe tappin good time to be had by all!

[bosse]

Mr Gramm, look at the spelling.. took pride in telling his audience " I failed in fourth grade vth grade e sixth grade and I got a p.. h d.. in ecco no mics... at 22, in his Texas drawl. I always wondered( I am from Texas) how such a character got elevated to such an important place in the US senate . No wonder the ill informed Mr McCain, took him as a coach in economics.­.and did not learn much. Now Mr Gramm enjoys the fruits of his senate career in holding a highly paid job by a foreign bank. While trying to become President a while back, he was amazed at the amt. of money he was able to raise from Rich Texans who could always depend on their Senators in Washington to get a good contract or two; and boasted " I have many good rich friends, who will stand by me" His mother used to drive him around ricjh neiborhoods in East Texas, and him "boy you could be in one of these big houses,some day"
But how fast these guys forget their own poor childhood, and relatives, and believe the unemployed and underpaid are just faking it.. just in a delusion.

[mivogo]

Why Obama and the Democrats aren't pounding the airwaves each day about this baffles me. Gramm is the arrogant, out-of-touch Republican stereotype, and he works for McCain. Anne Richards said George Bush was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple_can you imagine what she would do to Gramm? God, do we miss her. And can you imagine what the Repubs would do with this in a reverse situation? Yikes!

[Moshe]

I'm not at all surprised that a GOP neo-con was involved in producing porn, just surprised that it involved women for a change.

[idabamaho]

Ya think this will make it on Brian Williams tonight?

RNC, the party of "Family Values" ROFL.....