Harris Kicks Off Her Senate Campaign

SARASOTA, Fla. - Rep. Katherine Harris began her campaign for Senate on Tuesday....

The Republican, best known for her role as Florida's then-secretary of state during the 2000 presidential recount, is trying to unseat Democrat Bill Nelson, who will be seeking his second Senate term in November 2006....

--AP

While trying to find out something about Penny Nance, the nuclear test-ban treaty opponent, Clinton basher, and anti-porn activist who's just been hired as an advisor to the FCC, I came across this amusing Katherine Harris anecdote at the PervBoy blog. PervBoy reprints what I gather is an article from Adult Video News about a congressional "Victims of Pornography Summit" held this past May. Harris spoke early in the proceedings (emphasis mine):

"It's hard to imagine what actually sponsors such unspeakable evil," Harris said, referring to the widely-reported attacks on three Florida children. "There are many contributing factors, but often, we hear about the consumption of pornography and how slowly but surely it's that kind of malignant desensitizer that changes a person's entire perception and becomes often the horrific denominator of crimes against children and women. But many studies have shown that these links between pornography and sexual abuse or violence are – they relate back to pornography, and I think lawmakers can no longer step back and not become more sensitive about that. It obliterates the wall between the individuals' sick fantasies and the compulsion to act upon them, and this is what Ted Kennedy said a day before he went to his execution. Dr. James Dobson interviewed him and it was written about in President Peter – Robert Peters' article for the Morality In Media. It was entitled, 'The Link Between Violent Pornography and Violent Sex Crimes,' and Ted Kennedy said, 'It happened in stages, gradually. My experience with pornography that deals on a violent level with sexuality is one that you become addicted to.' He said, 'I would keep looking for a more and more potent, explicit graphic kinds of material. Like an addiction, you keep craving something that's harder and harder, something which gives you a greater sense of excitement, until you reach the point where pornography only goes so far.'"

The article goes on to explain:

For those who don't remember Ted Kennedy – and though there are many Americans with that name, the most famous is the Senator from Massachusetts – being executed in Florida as a serial killer, Harris eventually managed to use the actual name of the person to whom she was referring, Ted Bundy.

Want a hint if you get confused again, Katherine? Bundy was a Republican.

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(Please tell me this isn't apocryphal.)