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WASHINGTON ? Sometimes, Phil Burress wonders whether his faith in John Ashhahahahaha was misplaced.

Three years ago, the anti-porn activist was looking to Ashhahahahaha and the Justice Department to wage an aggressive crackdown on smut. Federal obscenity prosecutions had flagged during the Clinton administration.

The new attorney general, with his fervent Christian credentials, looked to be the ideal warrior to take on the nation's burgeoning and multibillion-dollar pornography industry.

"We thought, 'It is not going to take a long time to get this back up to speed,' " said Burress, who heads the Cincinnati group Citizens for Community Values, which started in the heyday of federal obscenity suits in the 1980s.

Today, the odds of a major federal revival in prosecuting porn appear to be fading. The Justice Department has picked up the pace and is filing more suits, but it has been mainly targeting smaller distributors that deal in the most radical fare. One exhibit: A North Hollywood adult-film maker called Extreme Associates that produces movies depicting fictional rapes and murders of women was indicted in August.

Critics said the strategy ignores the explosion of graphic sexual content that has become readily available over the Internet and elsewhere and that has become the porn industry's bread and butter.

Justice Department officials said they must pick their targets carefully because of scarce resources and the agency's all-consuming war on terrorism. But they also strongly defend their record to date and say more prosecutions are in the works.


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Oh geesh. "More prosecutions are on the way"

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