Jeff Gannon, Jim Guckert, and... Prostitution?

What's also sad is you have no balls whatsoever to answer this simple question:

What do you think the intent is of a guy advertising as an escort who poses nude, boasts of being exclusively "top only," and tells you that he's looking for a "good time?"

What is sad is you have nothing better to do than to guess at their intent. Since there is nothing to be gained by making those kinds of guesses, I'll decline the invitation.

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- A federal grand jury has subpoenaed White House records on administration contacts with more than two dozen journalists and news media outlets in a special investigation into the alleged improper leak of a covert CIA official's identity to columnist Robert Novak last July.

Talon News has learned that one of the journalists being targeted is Jeff Gannon, Washington Bureau Chief and White House correspondent for Talon News.

...

At one point Gannon quotes a White House spokesman who said, "There are some people that are making unsubstantiated allegations and unsubstantiated rumors about the White House leaking classified information. And some of those people have been forced to back away from that, and then all of a sudden they move the goalpost and focus on another issue that's not the subject of the investigation."

In December of last year, Gannon reported on continuing pressure by Senate Democrats on the Justice Department to "pursue the investigation into the alleged leak of a CIA officer's identity earlier in the year." Gannon also identified Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee as the two prominent figures leading the push.

At the same time, the Washington Post claimed that "according to their sources, the Central Intelligence Agency believes people in the Bush administration are continuing to release classified information to damage figures at the center of the Niger 'yellowcake' controversy."

According to a subsequent Talon News story by Bobby Eberle regarding the Washington Post piece, "The Washington Post cites an unnamed source who says, 'The CIA is angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets.' They point to a memo referenced in a Talon News interview of Wilson that suggests his wife was instrumental in his selection for the fact-finding trip to Africa."

Talon News was the only service identified by the Washington Post as having knowledge of the memo's existence.

"I will tell you that the information did not come from inside the administration," Gannon told Talon News. "For something that is supposed to be classified, it seems that this document is easily accessible."

Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported the subpoena of White House records on administration contacts with journalists and news media outlets that are targets in the special investigation.

Gannon declined to comment on whether federal investigators have contacted or interviewed him and said that he has yet to receive a subpoena. Gannon also noted that he has not been contacted by any other news agencies.

"I don't know why I'm on the list of journalists being called before the Grand Jury," Gannon told Talon News. "I have been an outspoken critic of the leak probe and an aggressive questioner of the motives behind it. That seems to have drawn the attention of someone with the authority to issue subpoenas."

I don't know their intent, nor do you. End of point. Carry on.

Tico wrote:

Quote:

I don't know their intent, nor do you. End of point. Carry on.

That's right we don't know. And I don't know if there are yellow eyed green biters dancing on the tip of your . . . . . . . . um, your uh......your........ left pinky either, but I suspect there aren't.

I've never had so much fun in my life as I am watching you guys dance the jelly roll spin. Who smeared the dance floor with grease? Now all we need is a little salt and some more baloney. You are arguing for something that is indefensible. Give it up and earn some respect, will ya man?

Good night, Tico. You're ruining my faith in you.

Quote:
Looking back at the special role played by Talon and [Jeff] Gannon in the South Dakota Senate campaign may provide clues in the mystery of the male-escort-cum-journalist's extraordinary access to the Bush White House.

The cooperation between the Talon News writer and Daschle's Republican challenger dates back to the early weeks of the South Dakota campaign, when Thune showed up as a guest on "Jeff Gannon's Washington," the writer's Internet radio program on Rightalk.com. It might have seemed unusual for a Midwestern Senate candidate to show up on an Internet radio show in Washington, where he would reach almost no listeners in his home state. But Gannon didn't waste Thune's time. His friendly questioning allowed the Republican candidate to lay out the themes of his campaign to unseat the incumbent: Daschle was an obstructionist opponent of the president, out of touch with the home folks, and married to a rich pharmaceutical lobbyist.

On Feb. 8, 2004, Gannon's interview with Thune was the subject of an article in the Argus-Leader, and immediately got picked up by "DaschlevThune," a Web blog operated by history professor and Republican activist Jon Lauck, and South Dakota Politics.com, run by a lawyer named Jason Van Beek. Lauck promoted a series of Talon News articles by Gannon, which charged that Dave Kranz, the Argus-Leader's chief political correspondent, and a three-decade veteran reporter, was in essence nothing more than a hit man for Daschle.

While promoting Talon and Gannon as credible journalistic sources, Lauck's blog reprinted sensational paragraphs posted by Gannon on the Talon News Web site, urging readers to take special note of the Talon reporter's "quite interesting article" about Daschle's "Sopranos-style" tactics. The story contained no actual evidence of misconduct by either the Democratic senator or the Sioux Falls newspaperman, beyond anonymous quotes that accused them of Mafia-like intimidation of "small business owners" and other beleaguered anti-Daschle dissidents. (The "Sopranos" story, like all of Gannon's other works, has been scrubbed by Talon's Republican owners from their Web site.)

The bloggers promoted dozens of Talon News attacks on Daschle, under the false flag of journalistic independence. They proclaimed themselves the paladins of truth, battling against South Dakota's "liberal media." Nobody in South Dakota would know until months after Nov. 2, when Daschle was so narrowly defeated, that those "independent" bloggers dogging him had been subsidized by the Thune campaign. But there, on the final post-election filings, were the names Lauck and Van Beek, who had been paid $27,000 and $8,000, respectively.

And nobody in South Dakota could know, until now, the true identity and purpose of "Jeff Gannon" and his employers at Talon News.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2005/02/18/gannon/index.html

Republicans will try to make this issue seem as if those who are attacking the WH are anti-gay, or searching into people's private lives, or just head-hunting for excuses. But none of that is true.

Why?

Because there's no problem that Guckert is gay (though it does provide quite the irony), only that he's a prostitute, which I don't have a huge problem with but I hardly think is a suitable background for access to the WH or questioning our CIC, thanks very much.

It's interesting how homophobic the left really is. All those consternations about conservatives being homophobic when discussing homosexual marriage is merely a smoke screen apparently.

Verrrrry interesting...

I don't believe either of those options fit, Dys.

But for another hint ..... I'm not defending Guckert/Gannon. I don't care for the approach of some folks who like to assume facts not in evidence, and who like to make broad sweeping generalizations