THE LOWDOWN ON THE (LATEST)
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SCANDAL
James Guckert, a k a Jeff Gannon

I’ve held off from posting about that strange, hot, studboy ringer who was allowed into White House press briefings for the purposes of tossing Bush’s press secretary Scott McClellan conservatively skewed softball questions because I wasn’t quite sure what the whole thing was adding up to. I’m still not sure where this is headed, but Maureen Dowd seems to have a pretty good handle on what’s going on here. Seeing as how my young sidekick Miles has already hit on the really big news of the day (see post below), it’s probably time to make mention at Real Art of this weird, sexually charged, goofy and outrageous story.

From the New York Times courtesy of Eschaton:

At first when I tried to complain about not getting my pass renewed, even though I'd been covering presidents and first ladies since 1986, no one called me back. Finally, when Mr. McClellan replaced Ari Fleischer, he said he'd renew the pass - after a new Secret Service background check that would last several months.

In an era when security concerns are paramount, what kind of Secret Service background check did James Guckert get so he could saunter into the West Wing every day under an assumed name while he was doing full-frontal advertising for stud services for $1,200 a weekend? He used a driver's license that said James Guckert to get into the White House, then, once inside, switched to his alter ego, asking questions as Jeff Gannon.

Mr. McClellan shrugged this off to Editor & Publisher magazine, oddly noting, "People use aliases all the time in life, from journalists to actors."

And

With the Bushies, if you're their friend, anything goes. If you're their critic, nothing goes. They're waging a jihad against journalists - buying them off so they'll promote administration programs, trying to put them in jail for doing their jobs and replacing them with ringers.

Click here for the rest.

UPDATE: Tom Tomorrow comments on this Dowd column here.

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