OK, so I was originally annoyed about this story because it seemed like another stupid lie. I mentioned Jeff Gannon in passing a while back, but left off the full story because, while really freaking odd, didn’t seem worth passing on. In part, I really didn’t get how this could’ve happened… for another part, I wasn’t sure if I cared about the guy’s past.

So, here’s the short summary: “Reporter” lobs softball question to Bush. People wonder who reporter is and who he works for. People figure out he’s using an alias and try to figure out if his pass was issued under his legal name or his alias. This was bad enough to me, as it seemed like a silly thing to lie about (we don’t know Guckert from Gannon and don’t really care). However, you’re not supposed to have passes with aliases on them. That to me is an issue… again, why support this lie???

Well, the blogosphere kept digging and then this story just became unbelievable. It turns out that J.D. Guckert (Gannon’s real name) was the owner and proprietor of several gay escort web sites… focusing on military fantasies. No, really… AMERICAblog has the details. As for why this matters:

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.” 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. 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?

I would add that this guy’s ties to the Republican party are pretty central to this. Also important is for us to understand how the White House allows people into the briefing room a mere 25 feet from the President. I would love to start FatMixx News and become a full time reporter at the White House but something tells me that I wouldn’t really get past the gate. The greater question is whether I should be able to get by the gate and why (or why not?). I’m curious to know (as, apparently, are others) what it takes to be a journalist. I suspect no pat answer exists for this, but a track record is probably a requisite before getting to the halls of Congress or the West Wing.

Read the post at AMERICAblog. Be warned that the images on that page are PG-13, even though they are censored. The article contains links to content that is not work safe, including several gay escort sites.

And, let me finish by saying, What the F**K?! No, really! What the F**K?! Gay prostitute gets press pass in this White House? HOW?