The Gannon/Guckert story is No Mere Sex Scandal

I've been avoiding talking about the Jeff Gannon/ Jim Guckert scandal. Partly because everyone else is writing about it and partly because I've been slow to realize how important and how big the story is.

Watching the George Bush Takes Over the World saga, has put a razor edge on my natural cynicism. The breaking story of a gay prostitute masquerading as a White House press correspondent, to help sell what ever soap the president was currently pushing, was completely in character with this administrations' usual mode of operation.

Yet another example of the Bush gang stacking the deck. Dealing only with the corporate media that knows to 'play ball' and or replacing legitimate reporters with trained stooges who present Republican propaganda as real news.

But this story is proving to be much more than yet another insidious propaganda ruse that is an everyday part of the Bush administration.

There is no doubt that the administration knew who and what Gannon/Guckert is. He has been a Republican activist since the days of George Bush senior. There is mounting evidence that Gannon's activities, in the world of male prostitution, went beyond selling his own body and also into supplying male prostitutes and even minors to Republican big wigs.

This is still speculative as more evidence must be obtained and some questions need to be answered. But it is starting to look ugly, once again, for the 'moral purity' party.

For me, the story gets really strange and interesting when we discover that Gannon is a person of interest in the 'outing' of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame. It seems that in the course of an interview with Ms. Plame's husband, Gannon let on that he knew things about the case that he should not have known.

Now we learn that Gannon was one of only six people who saw the documents containing the information about Ms. Plume, that was leaked. Blowing her cover, ending her CIA career and compromising any agents that were known to know her. This is a serious crime.

The question that immediately comes to mind, one that has not been adequately answered, is how and why was a man like Gannon, with no journalistic credibility, was given access to such documentation. Who vetted him for such trust?

Paranoid Supreme George Bush does not allow serious access to legitimate reporters he doesn't know and trust. Gannon was not a legitimate reporter. He wrote for one web site yet had access given few other reporters. Bush and his handlers knew Gannon and trusted him for their own reasons, while no one else, including the Secret Service and the FBI had a clue who he was. If you believe the FBI and SS were ignorant of the man and his other proclivities, I have a seasonal property in sunny Florida that I would like to tell you about. I'm practically giving it away.

OK, link time. So you know I'm not making up this weird tale as I go. One thing I repeatedly see from the actions of Bush and the neocons, is that truth often seems much stranger than fiction. To paraphrase Richard Franklin; That's because the truth isn't heard that often.

This is a link to a thread at Thom Hartmann's excellent site. The poster has put a lot of information and links together that are of some interest. The post starts with a copy of a letter Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, a ranking member of the House Rules Committee, has sent to President Bush, asking him to explain to Congress and Americans why this fraudulent individual was repeatedly cleared by the White house staff. In order to allow him to infiltrate the legitimate press corp.

It is a good question. Yet another good question we are not likely to get a straight answer to.

Below Rep. Slaughter's letter is a copy of an open letter addressed to Representative Slaughter by her local newspaper, the Niagara Falls Reporter. The letter exposes their own discoveries regarding Gannon and ask the representative why such blatant gerrymandering of the White house Press Corp is being allowed.

As more than one writer has asked: How is it that it took bloggers twenty four hours to find out who this man is and what his other activities are, yet, the FBI and Secret Service allowed this man into handshake/pistol distance of a very paranoiac president, without knowing who he is in minute details?

Maybe they did, but if so, his pass came from the very top. The only way to circumvent the tight control of the press, around the president.

On one hand we have yet another example of bought media in the White House. Something this administration gets caught at, with alarming regularity. Going so far as to hire their own shill and insinuating him into the White House Press corp, the most elite job in journalism, signifies that this administration and this president will stop at nothing to control the media.

For those who don't already know, Gannon never worked for a newspaper or any other media outlet. He writes, or rather did write, for one right wing web site.

Here are some other links regarding Gannon/Guckert. Be warned, some of the links are cached web sites Gannon used to advertise his many escort services. $200 per hour or $1,200 for a week end of his special attention. This one has quite a number of links, some a bit on the lewd and rude side. If you are sensitive to naked guys, don't look. You have been warned.

If you want to see just how deadly serious this story may get, check this out. . It is an interview with Joe Wilson, a conservative critic of the Bush administration, whose wife, a veteran and well placed CIA agent, had her cover blown by a leak from high up in the Bush White House.

We learn in this interview, that Gannon/Guckert , the phony journalist and rent boy, was one of only six people who had access to those documents. Using a false name and telling Mr. Wislon that he was a conservative, "not a neo-conservative", Gannon was able to interview Wilson. The story that came from it was a hatchet smear job that had little to do with the interview and everything to do with White House revenge. It was in this interview that Gannon/Guckert clearly revealed that he had seen the secret documents.

The roll this shill was playing for the white house regarding this affair is, as yet, not known. There is no excuse for revealing this kind of potentially dangerous information to a man like Gannon/Guckert. Either he had no security clearance, which appears to be the case, meaning some one very high up put damaging secret documents in this man's hands for political reasons. Or he did have clearance meaning the FBI and Secret Service are lying. This is like Kerik only much worse.

There appears to be no end to the political corruption of this president. A man who can't take a hint of criticism, keeps long enemies lists, and believes in avenging the tiniest slight. Wilson's wife was considered "fair game" by the white house because of Wilson's conservative criticisms of the Bush government.

Given that Gannon may have the keys to a few Republican secrets, given that he loves to talk, and given that prostitutes are very easy targets, Gannon is now at the top of my list of people most likely to disappear, without a trace.

This batch of Republicans and their neo-con allies seem to corrupt and weaken everything they touch. Will America survive their touch?