Donna Rice Hughes says enough is enough

Tue, 12 Sep 2000 19:00:00 +0000

Photographs of Donna Rice Hughes in the company of Colorado's then Sen. Gary Hart -- including one of her sitting on his lap aboard a boat named "Monkey Business" -- launched a media frenzy about the nature of their relationship. The scandal ultimately proved toxic to Hart's presidential quest.

Although neither Hart nor Hughes has ever divulged the details of their relationship, Hughes was depicted as an adulterous bimbo. That portrayal is a far cry from the articulate and intelligent advocate for a porn-free Internet who penned "Kids Online: Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace" and has her own Web site. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Carolina.

Hughes successfully avoided the press in the years after the Hart scandal, married and became a born-again Christian. She reemerged in 1995 at a briefing on Capitol Hill sponsored by Enough Is Enough, a nonprofit organization opposed to porn on the Internet.

Salon.com > Amy Debra Feldman

Donna Rice Hughes says enough is enough