Helms Chagrined by Error : Oops--an ‘X-Rated’ Congressional Record

A “dial-a-porn” recording was inadvertently inserted in the Congressional Record by Sen. Jesse Helms as he sought to argue that America’s children should be protected from such sexually explicit material.

The transcript of the taped message, inserted in last Saturday’s edition of the Record begins:

“Hi, I’m Nellie from High Society and I’m so busy getting ready for my June wedding. Why don’t you and I have a private shower?”

The salacious material was part of a legal memorandum prepared by the Citizens for Decency Through Law, Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz.

Helms had the material inserted in the record before the Senate adopted his motion calling for the banning of “dial-a-porn” services.

The inclusion of the material was “a staff error,” said Barbara Lukens, the senator’s press secretary.

“It should have been edited out but it wasn’t,” she said. “The senator didn’t know it was going in. He’s not pleased.”

When Helms, on the Senate floor, asked to have the material placed in the record, “he had a bunch of papers in his hand” that staff members had given him, Lukens said.

On the floor, Helms described those papers as “persuasive, scholarly and well done.”