Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, whose campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is based on a theme of moral regeneration, invested in a soft-porn film 20 years ago that eventually became a mocking account of Richard Nixon's final days in the White House.
Gramm conceded Wednesday that he had invested in what he thought was "an R-rated spoof of beauty contests" but suggested he was in the dark as to the ultimate anti-Nixon nature of the film.However, the senator's former brother-in-law, who raised money for "White House Madness" and other features with frontal nudity, said Gramm knew about the film's topic and was eager to get his money into the production.
"Absolutely. No question at all," said George Caton, Gramm's former in-law, in a telephone interview from his home in Spokane, Wash.
Disclosure of the investment could be damaging to Gramm's own White House ambitions, and his spokesman, Larry Neal, immediately blamed Democrats for spreading the story. Neal said liberal opponents had peddled similar accounts during Gramm's Senate campaigns in Texas in 1984 and 1990 but that they never made it into general circulation.