Tuesday, February 15, 2005
by Wayne Besen
Although George W. Bush once owned The Texas Rangers, anyone who has seen him at a press conference knows that his favorite sport is really softball. Bush's penchant for puff helps to explain the mercurial rise and fall of "reporter" Jim Guckert, who went from working in a cyber-whorehouse to covering the White House as a "correspondent" for conservative Internet magazine, Talon News.
When not reporting conservative news, Guckert was a member of Bush's "ownership society". In fact, he owned seedy gay sex websites including HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com. While other reporters covered a beat, Guckert's beat was under the covers.
Hypocrite-buster John Aravosis of
AmericaBlog.org also posted evidence that Guckert sold himself on these websites for $200 an hour, or $1,200 a weekend. Having seen his picture, Guckert - a poor man's Mr. Clean - is guilty not just of impropriety, but overcharging.
One would think that with such a unique resume in the era of homeland security, Guckert would have had trouble getting clearance to cover the President. But this is the Age of Bush, where payola pals like Armstrong Williams, Michael McManus and Maggie Gallagher are standard fare. Still, would the administration let a gay right wing Internet pimp set up shop in a Republican White House that won partly by pandering to "values voters"?
Of course.
The administration didn't blush or blanch, but simply gave carte blanche to Guckert. Using the pseudonym Jeff Gannon, he quickly became Bush's patronizing patsy who served puff on a platter, while genuine reporters with real questions were overlooked. In his "news stories" he often cut and pasted administration press releases. The unqualified Gannon was so much a part of the White House Press Corps, he reportedly was given a classified CIA memo that outed agent Valerie Plame.
You've got to hand it to this White House. When they couldn't get the media to buy their spin, they bought the media. And now, when they couldn't get the media hook they desired, they simply got a hooker. Unfortunately for Bush, his ringer was a Ringling Brothers sexual circus.
Interestingly, Guckert was denied Capitol Hill press passes because Talon News was considered an illegitimate right wing propaganda service run by Republican rabble-rouser Bobby Eberle. Yet, he somehow got into the White House.
At the heart of the scandal are a couple of crucial questions: Was Guckert simply an ambitious prostitute or a propitious presidential plant? If he was a plant, exactly who greased the wheels that got him past tight security?
The vulgar scandal has revived Washington whispers that the supposedly anti-gay Republican Party is really nothing less than a gay affirmative action program. Glance at whose running the GOP and it looks like a Harvey Fierstein cocktail party. A few months ago, activist
Mike Rogers revealed that GOP National Field Director Dan Gurley is gay and sought unsafe sex online. Rogers also revealed that Ken Mehlman, chair of the Republican National Committee, is gay.
This week, the Internet news site
Raw Story posted allegations that White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan may be gay and suggested he is a common fixture at Texas gay bars - kind of like a gay, southern version of Norm on the old sitcom Cheers.
"He was often seen in gay clubs in Austin and was comfortable being there," an anonymous source told Raw Story. "He's been seen in places that normal people who are looking for heterosexual relationships are not seen alone."
Clearly, Mehlman, Gurley and McClellan are in powerful positions and have the authority to, say, get a whore through the door with press credentials. There ought to be a full investigation to find out how a man who poses in briefs got into the briefing room.
Quite frankly, I couldn't care less what people do in their spare time. If someone wants to live a miserable life and stay in the closet, it is his or her choice. If you want to cruise the Internet, just make sure you have good pictures. It only becomes my business when gay people run a party that actively works to pass a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting me from marrying. Based on their reported behavior, Gurley, Guckert and McClellan clearly aren't the marrying kind. Still, they have no right to earn their living by undermining the lives of other gay and lesbian people.
The GOP's hypocrisy on gay issues extends beyond administration officials. In 1999, right wing nut Alan Keyes spoke at a Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays conference, which falsely blames bad fathering for causing homosexuality. This week, his daughter Maya Keyes officially came out as a liberal lesbian. Talk about getting karmaed! In a demonstration of family values, Keyes threw Maya out of the house and will no longer pay for her education.
The conservative party line on homosexuality is a complete fraud. Conservatives who preach that gay people can go straight keep having gay kids. The Bush administration is the gayest in memory, although they are all quivering in the closet, or is that gyrating on the Internet? If Bush's face is ever plastered on currency, there is no doubt it should the three-dollar bill.
16 Comments:
Great overview. You, the Rude Pundit and John Aravosis at americablog seem to be the only ones who understand why this is a major story. I guess it's telling that Clinton got impeached by the GOP over essentially a private matter and this has much more impact on the public. Not it's becoming obvious why the current administration is so anti-gay - they have to have a cover for the closet or their American Christian Taliban won't send them to victory.
posted by gaugebosons, at
12:45 AM
I guess that's the cross the current administration has to bear... unfortunately it's on the backs of gay americans
posted by gaugebosons, at
12:46 AM
I must disagree that Gannon is overcharging. when he was in his prime he would fetch $300. an hour, so $200 is reasonable .
posted by , at
4:11 PM
How did Guckert/Gannon get in? Simple: McClellan hired him for services, and the after-cum pillow-talk led to politics which led to credtials (and, no doubt, a continuing intimate relationship with the White House Press Secretary).
posted by , at
5:50 PM
They're turning the White House into the Whore House.
posted by , at
4:26 AM
Scott McClellan may not be "the marrying kind," but he *is* married. Not only that, but Guckert, this time under his *real* name, sent him a wedding card. I'd love to see the inscription. Do you think it says, "Can you still keep your Tuesday nights free for me, Scotty?"?
posted by , at
5:19 PM
this story blows my mind. it shows how incompetent this administration is.
i only hope that they dont retaliate by trying to undermine the rest of the gay population instead of going after the real culprits.
posted by , at
12:30 PM
Great essay! Thorougly enjoyable!
(One dangling participle ["Having seen his picture," but, heck, I do those, too!)
posted by metrodorus, at
8:06 AM
There is little story here yet and I think it is a mistake to overplay it. Many assumptions are being made that may prove extremely embarrassing if they are wrong. The crux of the story may be as speculated that of a predatorial gay hustler. However that back story could be irrelevant. Gannon, faced with a financial crisis in 1999 might have turned to prostitution in desperation, an enterprise at which he may have failed. Seeing little prospect as a 45 year old hustler trying to market himself as someone ten years his junior he finds someone at GOPUSA who takes a shine to him. Perhaps there is a sex angle there but that hardly reaches to the White House. The only taint of scandal that attaches to this read is that of a lax White House vetting procedure which let slip past someone with a potential to seriously embarrass the government. As for hounding Gannon from the press corps by playing up the sex angle, it leaves unattended the real problem of media shills asking loaded and editorialising questions, and failing to do the real task of journalism, which isn't stenography but checking facts, checking sources and reporting.
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