Citizen Flynt

Have any of Clinton's cronies thanked you?

Oh yes. I think Clinton would really like to get together with me, but the media buzz would not be in his best interest ... or mine for that matter.

You going to read his book?

I'm going to read it.

I'm imagining you're privy to 30 years' worth of inside information. I remember during Bush the elder's term there was a story going around that he was having a discreet affair with a wealthy woman in Washington. Do you remember that?

Yes.

Now I think of poor old Bush exiled up in the wilderness of Maine with Mrs. Bush. As the song goes, I don't think he gets around much anymore.

[Dry laugh.] I don't have any information on that.

Oh, come on. You're Larry Flynt. You sure you don't know the true story?

No. I've just heard the true story. I know the Bush family denied it. Beyond that, I don't know anything.

You mention Ann Coulter several times in your book. Did she really have an affair with Bob Guccione?

Bob Guccione Jr., who was the publisher of Spin magazine. And she was dating him. I find it hard to believe that any man could screw Ann Coulter, but they were having an affair.

I had the vibe when I was talking with her that she was in the closet, fulfilling some sort of Republican sexual irony.

You know, I call her a fag hag. She does like to hang out with gay guys a lot.

Both you and John Kerry were in the armed forces. Bush and Cheney got rich-kid deferments from active duty. How on earth did John Kerry allow himself to be put on the defensive as if he was the one who was a slacker?

Well, you know, I think Bush spent about $100 million on that attack, and caught Kerry off guard. But it didn't seem to hurt Kerry that much. Kerry seemed to come back. Hey, I'm for anybody but Bush. Kerry wasn't my choice, but you know we got a candidate we gotta get behind, and do what we can for him.

They stole the first election and got away with it. Think how powerful they are now.

My big worry this coming election is there are a lot of states with new voting machines. They're the touch-type rather than the punch cards, and there could be some real screw-ups this time around. But if it doesn't happen, I think Kerry is destined to win.

Well, the dirt on Bush and Cheney and Halliburton has been falling from the sky for more than a year, but no one seems to care. A special prosecutor has not been appointed to investigate the lies and corruption involving the Iraq war. There are no committee hearings. No riled-up citizens are storming the White House. That's why I started the interview with the abortion question. America is the kind of place where the president's secret abortion will fire people up. It's a terrible thing that a guy paying for his girlfriend's abortion would be a big deal, but this is America. You were born-again for a year -- doesn't every Christian feels like a sinner?

Unfortunately, I think most of the country is manic-depressive from time to time. That's when a lot of these "born-again" experiences are brought about. If someone has a religious epiphany, he can't go to a family member or a neighbor, he goes to the local church, and he winds up being caught up in the system rather than get counseling and good medication for his problem. I know what it's like. I've been there. I've seen the visions. Heard the voices. I can understand why people are so dogmatic about their religion. Hey, if it helps 'em get through the day, more power to 'em. I just don't want them imposing it on me.

Do you care about Bob Dylan?

I've always liked Bob Dylan.

Well, even Bob Dylan found Jesus for a while back in 1979.

Everybody in America finds Jesus, you know. [Laughs.] It's no big deal. It's figuring out why you found him that's the problem.

Was there a single moment when the Holy Ghost touched you, and that was that?

Oh yes. It was with Jimmy Carter's sister, Ruth Carter Stapleton. I just started seeing visions. And hearing voices. And talking in tongues. It was some weird experience. I knew that I wanted to hear from a good shrink what had happened. That's who I sought out. I've been fine ever since.

So is "The People vs. Larry Flynt" -- the movie of your life -- the real thing?

Anytime they reduce your entire life to two hours on the silver screen, a lot gets left out. What is there is very accurate.

Did you feel any kind of affinity for Courtney Love?

I feel for Courtney. I think Courtney has a lot of problems. Has a lot to deal with. She doesn't seem to be handling it very well. I've tried to help her, and haven't had much success.

Do you still relish the moment you called the Supreme Court all assholes with "one token cunt"?

That was my finest hour.

Did you take in all their faces?

It was just an adrenaline rush. [Long pause. Raspy breathing.] I just wouldn't recommend anyone else behave that way.

Has the Supreme Court done anything that you can respect in the last 25 years?

Yeah. My suit against Jerry Falwell -- which has done more for free speech than anyone realizes. If you look at "Saturday Night Live" or Letterman, they're on the cutting edge. When Carson was on back in the 1980s, if was very tame. It was funny and good, but it was tame. Now they can do the impersonations and say pretty much whatever they want to about anybody as long as it's interpreted as a joke. That was the gray area that there was no case law to declare that jokes were protected speech.

But Jay Leno isn't going to make a joke about George Bush getting an abortion for his girlfriend, is he?

No. Uh-uh. But it ain't because of Jay. Jay would do it.

So let me ask a Jay Leno kind of question: After surgery, your dick works OK now, right?

Yes. My [sexual] positions are limited. But it works.

Do you keep track of Franklin [the white supremacist who shot him]?

He's appealing his death sentence in Missouri.

He'll never get out, will he?

No. They'll electrocute him in the next four or five years, probably.

Do you still relive the moment he shot you?

No. I don't even think about it. I don't dwell on things I can't do anything about.

Your children seem to remember everything about being raised by Larry Flynt.

I have five children, but only one child that I have a good relationship with -- Teresa, my daughter. She runs my retail store chain. All the others spend their time complaining how I've fucked up all their lives.

Did you indeed fuck anyone's life up?

I probably did. But you can't go back and redo it, if you're a bad father. You can't go back 20 years later and correct it.

When you ran strip clubs in Ohio did you ever imagine you'd become an American icon?

No. When I started out I didn't have two food stamps to rub together. I just wanted to make a buck. Hustler afforded me that. Everything mushroomed from that.

If you discovered that Hillary was sleeping with another person, would you follow it up or just let it go?

We would follow that.

Why?

Because she is living a life privately different than she is advocating publicly. I think when politicians do that you have to go after them.

I guess the real shocker would be if Hillary were still enjoying conjugal relations with her husband.

(Flynt laughs)

So in your heart of hearts, you feel Bush is going to be defeated.

Short of finding that Kerry is a transvestite, I think so. Iraq isn't going to get any better. It's only going to get worse.

What if they "find" bin Laden as an "October surprise"?

I don't care if they drag him out of a hole the day before the election. I don't think that it's going to matter. The nation is polarized. I don't know if you've been watching TV or not, but those bellwether states like Ohio and Michigan, they are solidly for Kerry. No one has ever won the presidency without them.

You're older than me, but I can't think of a worse four years than the ones we've been through.

You know, if you just had to pick out one thing that is so fucking disturbing you want to leave the country, it's that goddamn PATRIOT Act that Bush and Ashcroft put through Congress. It goes against everything we stand for. We're a beacon for democracy. If in order to fight terrorism we have to get down in the mud [and curb liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights], then we're giving up everything that makes this nation great. Benjamin Franklin once said that "Those who would give up their civil liberties for security deserve neither."

In the end, would you like to be remembered as an American patriot or "the sex guy"?

If I have any legacy at all to leave, I would like it to be that I fought to expand the perimeter of free speech. And I can't think of any nobler goal than that.

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