(c) 1995 Copyright Nando.net
(c) 1995 Cox News Service
WASHINGTON (Dec 7, 1995 - 00:08 EST) -- Visitors to Rep. Brian
Bilbray's home page on the Internet's World Wide Web are invited to
take a "virtual" tour of the Republican's home town of San Diego.
Among the stops: the Lingerie Warehouse, where young women model
styles such as "chains of my heart," "maid to order," and "leather and
lace."
Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., offers visitors to his Internet site a
connection to "Arizona's WebHub," which has an entire section of adult
entertainment, including the steamy "Electric Sex Shop."
Members of Congress worried about smut on the Internet sometimes need
look just a few mouse-clicks from their own official computer sites.
Eager to give Net visitors a flavor of their home states or districts,
many lawmakers simply connect to existing commercial or university
networks back home. The results can prove embarrassing.
The colorful World Wide Web home page of House Majority Leader Dick
Armey, R-Tex., offers a convenient link to "Web Texas," whose
residents include Amigos International, "helping single men find love,
romance and marriage with women from Latin America."
Could a casual visitor think Armey was endorsing such a business?
"Absolutely not," said press secretary Jim Wilkinson testily. "Anyone
who uses the Web realizes that is a private, independent site."
"Am I supposed to hold the Library of Congress liable if it links to
pornography?" he asked.
The Internet site of Rep. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., has a connection to
a list of World Wide Web sites that include a patent medicine shop in
Texas, a military surplus company called "Battle Stations," and Lambda
Net, an Internet provider for gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
"A casual observer finds out information about the Eighth District and
an opportunity to be linked to Web sites in Georgia," said Chambliss's
top aide, Rob Leeburn. "That's basically where we are. That's what
getting onto the Internet is about."
The World Wide Web has opened the Internet to millions of new users
who can effortlessly navigate its system of linked pages. Click on a
highlighted phrase on one page and you can be connected to another
computer site across town or around the world.
"Every site on the Web is three or four clicks away from any other
site," said Chris Casey, who designed Congress's first Web site for
Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and is now a technology adviser to
Senate Democrats.
"Any member of Congress through their home page is trying to benefit
from the nature of the Web by linking into other relevant sites,"
Casey said. "It might be useful for offices to try to make clear, and
for net browsers to realize, when they have left the member's page."
Some senators and House members protect their dignity by offering
"dead-end" computer sites with only their biographies, news releases
and Washington tour guides. Others link just to sanitized government
networks back home.
"We didn't want to be a dead-end link where you just have dry
congressional stuff," said Kolbe's press secretary, Doug Nick. "We
wanted to have a bunch of other good things."
Nick said he would have to discuss with his boss severing the link to
Arizona's WebHub. "Obviously we wouldn't endorse that kind of thing,"
he said. "That's one of the dangers of working in an infant industry
like this -- you sometimes learn as you go."
Some lawmakers offer visitors a list of their own favorite Web sites.
Armey includes some country music groups. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Tex., in
one of the most elaborate sites in the House, has links to Texas
sports pages and fantasy card games.
Bilbray's press secretary, Melissa Dollaghan, said neither she nor the
congressman knew the San Diego tour to which they connected included
the Lingerie Warehouse.
"Did he go through and look at every strand and where the other links
lead to? No. Is it a tacit endorsement of something they might have on
there? No," she said.
"We wanted to provide a site that provided a tour," Dollaghan said.
"If there's a lingerie shop in there, and they don't want to look at
it, they don't have to."