I guess Alberto Gonzalez making porn a DOJ priority on par with fighting terrorism, appointing a “porn czar,” and launching the first federal obscenity prosecutions in 20 years wasn’t enough for Sen. Orin Hatch.

Here’s Glenn Greenwald, live blogging the Mukasey hearings:

As he always does, Sen. Hatch makes clear that — even as we battle the Global Epic War of Civilizations against Islamo-fascism — his primary concern is that the Department of Justice is not doing enough to battle the evils of what even he calls “mainstream, adult pornography.”

Hatch explains that “pornography and obscenity consumption harms individuals, families, communities.” Unfortunately, Hatch said, the DOJ has a “terrible record enforcing adult obscenity law” — such enforcement stopped during the Clinton administration and there is not much more to show for it during the Bush administration.

The problem, Hatch explained, is that the DOJ is only prosecuting “extreme” obscenity — not what he calls “mainstream obscenity.” Since most consumers only access “mainstream obscenity,” not “extreme obscenity,” this strategy is misguided — it prosecutes “too narrow a range of obscenity.” Also, warned Hatch, there are far too few FBI resources being devoted to “mainstream obscenity prosecutions.”

It’s important to note, here, that “mainstream obscenity” is a contradiction in terms. Obscenity, at least by the Supreme Court’s definition in Miller v. California, isn’t “mainstream.” What Hatch wants are pornography prosecutions.

Still, it’s helpful to know the spirit of Ed Meese is still alive and well in the Republican Party. Never mind that, as I’ve explained before, just about every measurable social indicator that people like Hatch believe could be affected by the availability of pornography is moving the other way, and has been since the early-to-mid 1990s, also the very period over which the Internet has made porn abundant, free, and easily accessible. Over the last 15 years, rapes are down to historic lows, abortions are way down, teen sex is down, teen pregnancy is down to historic lows, divorces are down, and crimes against children are down.

Mukasey played right along:

Mukasey promised to review the policy of only prosecuting “extreme” rather than “mainstream” pornography, and vowed: “I recognize that mainstream materials can have an effect of cheapening a society, objectifying women, and endangering children in a way that we can’t tolerate.”

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