Church Group Seeks to Block Pitt’s Nomination

A church group sent a letter Wednesday to President Bush asking him to withdraw his pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission because of legal work the nominee once did for a sex firm.

The Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, made up of 43,000 churches, said Bush may have been unaware that Washington lawyer Harvey Pitt once represented New Frontier Media Inc. (ticker symbol: NOOF), which the coalition described as a major pornography distribution company.

“A man who does legal work for a major purveyor of pornography does not seem to be the kind of person you would want to head up the [SEC],” wrote the coalition’s chairman, the Rev. Louis Sheldon. “I hope you will withdraw his name as a candidate for this position.”

The White House stood behind Pitt’s nomination, saying that attorneys often represent organizations whose views they do not share and that Pitt did a nominal amount of work on a securities issue, helping the company retain its Nasdaq listing.