Larry Flynt, legendary pornographer and publisher of Hustler Magazine is beginning to resemble Dr. Evil — if not by baldness, then by character setup — as his offers for $1 million are becoming more frequent. As you may recall, in March of this year, Flynt, a longtime critic of American politics started offering the sum to anyone who could provide the necessary details to tarnish a politician. Which politician? Any, it didn’t matter whom. Flynt apparently has a thing for schadenfraude, watching as the dirt of corrupted politics unfolds in the style of Bill Clinton and Anthony Weiner.
Sunday’s Washington Post featured Flynt’s newest ad, which cited his latest bounty (see below), $1 million dollars for information about Mitt Romney’s unreleased tax returns. Not to worry, if you missed Sunday’s edition and like to collect Jesse James era bounty notices, it’s being run again today. But isn’t Flynt going about this all wrong? Maybe he needs some step by step lessons on how to buy and use bitcoin? Because that’s what the hackers who report to have stolen Romney’s records are asking for. Perhaps after checking with a lawyer or two, Flynt realizes this is the only practical way to engage with parties claiming criminal action outright (trespassing at PWC, stealing Mr. Romney’s tax records, blackmail — see my comic strip).
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Could it be that Flynt is desperately trying to make a name for himself in U.S. politics? If you can remember back to California’s Gubernatorial Recall Election of 2003, Flynt came in 7th place with, just in front of the late, Gary Coleman. (A pre-HuffPost Arianna Huffington did a little better in the recall, coming in 5th.) With no developments nearly a week after the FBI launched an investigation on the tax return kidnapping, will Flynt’s offer finally blow open the attaché of Romney’s 1040? Stay tuned.
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