I have to admit that I feel awkward and uneasy posting comments about Jeff Gannon, his role as a shill for the White House, and his alleged extracurricular activities as a gay-sex hustler.
But I have just read about a dozen or so stories on the case and can’t avoid commenting on what could and should become a huge scandal inside and around George & Laura Bush’s White House. Here is one from Howard Kurtz that seems to be more about bloggers and the scandal but is still useful.
In these high-fear, paranoid times regarding White House security, it seems unimaginable to me that any decent background checks on Gannon would not have turned up about a thousand red flags.
John Aravosis did a background check on the guy posing on a daily basis as a reporter in the White House press gallery and uncovered an unbelievable (and frankly, disgusting) trove of information on this character.
I am going to link Aravosis’s material — but note, there are graphic male nude photos linked to the Aravosis post. There are ‘blockers’ over sexual organs in the link I am providing — but be warned that the links to the Aravosis post are the full and real thing. Do Not Click the link if you are offended by such material. I am posting this because I think it’s important to see who and what the White House not only allowed into its midst but the fact that the White House Communications Director so frequently “played ball,” so to speak with this fake journalist but very real sex hustler.
Here is a link to more on Jeff Gannon’s identity problem.
I do not have the whole story yet, but from what I can tell, there is evidence that Jeff Gannon was one of the reporters that the White House pushed the Valerie Plame story to. He has been subpoenaed by the grand jury, which assures that the Valerie Plame scandal is going to be front page again.
I want to know who helped Gannon get access to the White House.
Mr. President, you better start looking your team in the eye and ask, “Who let this guy in? Why didn’t our security team find out what John Aravosis did? Was there something illicit in the relationship between his White House connection and Jeff Gannon/Guckert? Who leaked Valerie Plame’s identity to the press? Who did it — and why isn’t anyone stepping forward accepting responsibility?”
The key grafs in Aravosis’s post are these:
Why does this matter?
So in the end, why does this matter? Why does it matter that Jeff Gannon may have been a gay hooker named James Guckert with a $20,000 defaulted court judgment against him? So he somehow got a job lobbing softball questions to the White House. Big deal. If he was already a prostitute, why not be one in the White House briefing room as well?
This is the Conservative Republican Bush White House we’re talking about. It’s looking increasingly like they made a decision to allow a hooker to ask the President of the United States questions. They made a decision to give a man with an alias and no journalistic experience access to the West Wing of the White House on a “daily basis.” They reportedly made a decision to give him — one of only six — access to documents, or information in those documents, that exposed a clandestine CIA operative. Say what you will about Monika Lewinsky — a tasteless episode, “inappropriate,” whatever. Monika wasn’t a gay prostitute running around the West Wing. What kind of leadership would let prostitutes roam the halls of the West Wing? What kind of war-time leadership can’t find the same information that took bloggers only days to find?
None of this is by accident.
Someone had to make a decision to let all this happen. Who? Someone committed a crime in exposing Valerie Plame and now it appears a gay hooker may be right in the middle of all of it? Who?
Ultimately, it is the hypocrisy that is such a challenge to grasp in this story. This is the same White House that ran for office on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. While they are surrounded by gay hookers? While they use a gay hooker to write articles for their gay hating political base? While they use a gay hooker to destroy a political enemy? Not to mention the hypocrisy of a “reporter” who chooses to publish article after article defending the ant-gay religious-right point of view on gay civil rights issue.
Who in the White House is at the center of all of this? Who allowed this to go on in the People’s House? Who committed the crime of exposing Valerie Plame? Jeff Gannon has the answers to these questions, and boy we know he loves to talk.
Let him talk to Patrick Fitzgerald.
Timing is everything. Had this story broken before the election, well. . .you know the rest of that story.
— Steve Clemons
P.S. Here is a link to a Congressional FOIA request on Gannon/Gukhert.
