It's even darker underneath

While much attention has been focused on Barack Obama's cabinet nominees, there's been relatively little said about the second and third layers of people filling important posts in Washington.

Case in point: It's been fairly well documented (outside the mainstream media, of course) that Eric Holder, the attorney general nominee, played a major role in the Clinton Era pardons of federal fugitive Marc Rich, as well certain FALN terrorists responsible for multiple murders (in which they beheaded victims, al-Qaeda style) and seven-figure bank robberies.

Not much has been said anywhere, though, about Obama's choice of David Ogden as deputy attorney general.

A simple scratch of the surface reveals some really disturbing stuff about a guy who will essentially run the day-to-day operation in our Department of Justice.

Put mildly, Ogden has been a great friend to the porn and abortion industries.

That he has represented Playboy and Penthouse in a number of cases is the least of what should raise quite a few eyebrows.

In one case, though, he argued against a child pornography law that required publishers of all kinds to verify and document the age of their "models" to ensure they were at least 18 years of age. He referred to the law as "mind-boggling" and "terrifying."

That Ogden thinks it overly restrictive to stop adult-entertainment publishers and movie-makers from exploiting 15- and 16-year olds might be disturbing in itself, but it's part of a pattern.

He also fought against the Children's Internet Protection Act, which ordered libraries and schools that receive funding for the Internet to restrict access to obscene Web sites. His argument was that it would be unconstitutional to force librarians to do so.

Ogden also has been a champion of abortion groups, fighting against the "right" for parents of girls under the age of 15 to be notified before an abortion is performed.

Thanks to his efforts there, when my daughters are in junior high, a school counselor can, without my or their mother's knowledge, take them to a clinic and have an abortion performed. (And in a twist of hideous irony, the same school will suspend her for a week if she's caught with one Tylenol capsule without a litany of paperwork and signatures.)

I realize there are a ton of attorney-types at various levels of government. And not all of them have championed, 100 percent, causes or people that everyone deems worthy.

But there are choices in life even for attorneys. And someone who champions child pornography, the right to have porn in our public schools and libraries and then abortion on demand for 14-year-olds shouldn't be running the DOJ, no matter how "qualified" he is.

(Imported from Feb. 5, 2009)