Flagpole, an independent magazine in Athens, Ga., has this account of a congressman forced to defend his position today on … crush videos.

U.S. Rep. Paul Broun's primary challenger says Broun was "absolutely wrong" to vote against banning videos of people stomping on small animals.

Broun was one of only three congressmen to vote against outlawing so-called "crush videos" in 2010. He defended the vote during a joint interview with opponent Stephen Simpson on WGAU 1340 AM this morning.

"I think the people who produce (crush videos) ought to be in jail, and the people who watch them ought to be in treatment," Broun said.

But all 50 states already ban crush videos, so it's not the federal government's role, the Athens Republican said.

Simpson, a retired Army lieutenant colonel from Milledgeville, said Broun is out of touch with voters on the issue. The federal government, not states, should prosecute crush video makers because they're engaging in interstate commerce, he said.

"The whole idea was to prevent it from being sold on the Internet," he said. "Only the federal government can do that."

Broun cast his crush video vote as part of a larger effort to drastically shrink the U.S. Department of Justice. Originally, the U.S. only had three federal crimes, he said: treason, piracy and counterfeiting.