INDCJournal: Gannonapolooza Update <strong><em>(UPDATED)</em></strong>

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February 14, 2005

Gannonapolooza Update (UPDATED)

Posted by Bill

Apparently, some large aspect to the Gannon story is due to break today. One of the lead bloggers on the hunt is giving cryptic hints and cautioning would-be assassins:

PS Just so the bad guys out there know, several of my friends already have copies of my files. I'm just saying...

Very crafty - we must also assume that this one is clever enough to double-wrap the aluminum foil to avoid the influence of our mind rays.

My wild guess? The clue indicates that he's found a picture of Gannon in some compromising position.

UPDATE: Links removed and post altered. If it turns out to be personal allegations, I don't want to promote a malicious attack on the guy. If not, I'll link it back up.

UPDATE: Via Dean's World, David Gergen weighed in on Gannonron on CNN:

GERGEN: I am sorry, I really have a hard time getting excited about this story. I think it's trivial compared to paying off journalists like Armstrong Williams or others and giving them money to go out and support you. In this case, the White House has had a lot of wild cards in there over the years, and you well know that. And various presidents � President Kennedy made no bones of the fact that there was a woman from Texas who was sort of � who was a liberal, and she was out there in the audience, and when he got in trouble on a question, he'd always find her. He knew where she sat. And he turned to her in press conferences because she'd get him off the took. This has been going on for a long, long time.

UPDATE: And the aforementioned brave blogger's commenters were worried that he'd been assassinated overnight by the Man:

Glad to see you're safe. Good luck with it all. Ken | Email | Homepage | 02.14.05 - 9:45 am | #

Other choice quotes from one of the tease threads:

tell us now damn it, i've been refreshing for 8 straight hours and my brain is melting. rob | Email | Homepage | 02.14.05 - 9:48 am | #

Ah, a single-sheeter (of foil).

Maybe they intercepted him? Yikes. John...? Hello...John? Fred | Email | Homepage | 02.14.05 - 9:53 am | #

If only we could silence this brave investigative voice of Truth.

Don't worry about typos!!! You can correct those later! pontificator | Email | Homepage | 02.14.05 - 9:49 am | #

Excellent advice.

UPDATE: The suspense is over - Gannon was apparently allegedly hawking services as a gay escort, and they've got invoices and the dirty photos to buttress the claim. The supersleuth blogger discusses why this matters to him:

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." (He acquired credentials under his real name -- Ed) 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. (Unproven speculation stated as "reported" fact! -- ED) 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.

Of course, this analysis skips to the conclusion that Gannon was a White House plant and that he was leaked documents, with no evidence. The man had day passes to White House Press briefings. Are these details about a conservative reporter's extracurriculur activities salacious and ironic? You bet. Are they evidence of some conspiracy, gross incompetence or nefariousness on the part of the Bush White House? Give me a break. If anything, unless these qualms were known and overridden by someone in the White House, the Secret Service would bear the burden.

A leftie blogger is triumphant in uncovering seedy activity by a relatively unknown partisan reporter, and reduced to sterling investigative work like this:

Even more photos show Jeff wearing the same silver watch with a black band that Jeff Gannon is known to sport. Some show that Jeff and Jeff Gannon have the same short and pointed eyebrows, same ears, same face structure, chest structure and nipples. Same wrinkles/creases in their stomachs when they bend forward. The resemblance is astonishing.

Same "nipples[!]" Way to go, Bob Woodward.

More rationalization:

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?

"Surrounded by gay hookers." "They use."

Ludicrous hyperbole.

I haven't come to a definitive conclusion about the innate newsworthiness of outing an allegedly former gay escort that had day credentials to White House briefings (escort services aren't even illegal on their face), but I'm sure of one thing: these bloggers are pathetic. If I had information that Dan Rather ran a bondage cat house out of his New York Penthouse during Rathergate, I don't think that I'd exactly make it a centerpiece of my work, and I certainly wouldn't dig for it. Or be proud of ruining the guy�s life.

I haven't decided whether or not to link the post itself, which is pornographic. And I'll be curious to see whether this blogger at "AmericaBlog" decides to dig into the personal lives and business dealings of Helen Thomas, David Gregory and the rest of the reporters with White House access. As it is, I find this precedent chilling.

UPDATE: Goldstein sums up my feelings with much greater efficiency.

UPDATE: Wizbang is unmoved.

RedState is disturbed by the ideological irony of the attack:

The movement of "not that there's anything wrong with that" has disintegrated into using what they once lauded as just a different kind of normal as a weapon against anyone who doesn't toe the line of *their* political orthodoxy.

Say Anything has more.

And some great, succinct analysis here.

Posted by Bill at February 14, 2005 02:50 AM | TrackBack (17)

Comments

Since it's John Aravosis that thinks he is going to break the story, and: "I've just contacted him for comment," it seems like a safe bet it has to do with his Gannon's sexuality.

It is really bizarre that all these people that are on the far left are getting so excited about outing a gay man.

Posted by: Theodore Hasse at February 14, 2005 04:14 AM

Boy, reading the comments page is a hoot and a half. The libs are "giddy with excitement" (their own words, not mine) at the destruction of the mighty and nigh-omnipotent Jeff Gannon.

Because, you know, he may be gay. And apparently being gay is a horrible horrible thing in "Progressive" society.

Posted by: Xoxotl at February 14, 2005 04:50 AM

That's a laugh. There were people in the comment thread wondering if the "watch" was actually a c**k ring. Then when the picture of the cartoon bulldog was posted, they wondered if there was evidence of bestiality. Where were these people when Clinton got oral from a subordinate while on the job and then lied about it under oath? If either of those ridiculous rumors is true, I'd think they'd be giving Gannon a freakin' medal.

Posted by: Mark J at February 14, 2005 06:44 AM

BA predicts it will only have to do with Gannon's private life. Can we get a libel suit already?

Posted by: beautifulatrocities at February 14, 2005 11:34 AM

I hear Gannon has retained counsel.

And referring to yourself in the third-blog-person voice is a first timid step towards madness.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at February 14, 2005 11:36 AM

I don't believe it. Prostitutes aren't like in Pretty Woman. It makes no sense. But the Angry Left needs something to be angry about, because being angry about their own impotence isn't much fun. YAWN

Posted by: beautifulatrocities at February 14, 2005 02:12 PM

The logical extension of this affair is that the WH needs to revoke the press credentials of all WH correspondents until deep background checks have been completed. The more the press runs with the story, the more demanding the reviews can be: credit, dna samples, polygraphs, medical records, drug testing and body cavity searches. The left gives the WH justification to go Ashcroft on the MSM's ass.

On the subject of Ashcroft, isn't the left's library book Patriot Act meme based on sections that allow the government to subpoena business records related to private individuals? Here the left obtains and publishes without any judicial sanction private business records relating to an individual in an attempt to convict him in the court of public opinion.

As an aside, this is just more proof that the Dems stand against small business and entrepreneurs.

Posted by: r-dubya at February 14, 2005 03:01 PM

Can the inevitable, LGF style "nipple overlay shot" be long in coming?

Man, I hope so. me and my 13 year old buddies are just waiting to steal an Instalanche!

Posted by: The Colossus at February 14, 2005 03:06 PM

You know, the funny thing is that this only makes me feel even more empathy towards Gannon. Let's face it, this is now a full-out homophobic lynching. It's disgusting.

Posted by: Presstopia at February 14, 2005 03:23 PM

From the Dictionary of American Political Hypocrisy:

outing (OW-ting): the involuntary disclosure of one's sexual preferences and habits
-when done by Republicans: vicious bigoted partisan witch-hunt hate crime
-when done by Democrats: triumph of investigative journalism

Gannon should have just said "Yes, it's true: I am a gay American."

Posted by: TallDave at February 14, 2005 03:49 PM

Yes, just imagine how the lefty bloggers would howl if the White House announced that it was going to look into the private lives of all reporters for any evidence of homosexuality, or sex for money.

Posted by: Pat Curley at February 14, 2005 04:14 PM

Unfortunately, my satirical comment seems to have flown right over their collective heads.

Posted by: Lonewacko at February 14, 2005 07:11 PM

Yup, I think this is officially the last straw for me. I no longer care to associate myself with these imbeciles, either ideologically or in any other way. I give up. The Right, unfortunately, wins by default.

Mike Caputo
aka Walter Sobchak

Posted by: Mike C at February 14, 2005 07:50 PM

I'm having great fun with my lefty friends simply by uttering the phrase, "Now who's Jeff Gannon again?"

Posted by: Farmer Joe at February 14, 2005 10:20 PM

This reminds me of the Page Six item about six months ago that found a gay porn actor working as a bus boy/waiter at the Bohemian Grove. They were salivating over this wonderful find, and called the BG for comment. Basically, their response was, "His work in that field has nothing to do with his work at the Grove. He's a great worker."

And that was that. The conservative Grove had a gay porn actor working for them and they didn't mind, while this pack of "progressive" lefty weirdos are salivating over outing this poor guy's sex life.

So, tell me again, who's progressive?

Posted by: Bill Peschel at February 14, 2005 11:26 PM

Actually, it sounds like Gergen was talking about Helen Thomas as the gal Kennedy would go to get get softball questions. See her bio at http://www.klru.org/texasmonthlytalks/archives/thomas/bio.asp , and note how well it matches up with Gergen's description.

Posted by: blofeld42 at February 15, 2005 12:09 AM

Great article here,

http://www.theconservativevoice.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2952

Posted by: notindc at February 15, 2005 12:31 AM