Anderson Cooper joins the journalistic-based community

Extraordinary.

First Catherine Crier, now Anderson Cooper. Is it possible that the sleeping giant has awakened, and we're now going to see some investigation into how Gannonguckert managed to get access to the White House Briefing Room for what looks like an even longer time than originally thought -- when he didn't even have a hard press pass.

The Anderson Cooper footage is pretty amazing stuff, if only for the contrast between Howie the Whore Kurtz' intro that takes the "Bloggers bringing down a guy they disagree with" angle, to Anderson Cooper's righteous indignation. Meanwhile, Olbermann was on the case again, with Dana Milbank, and brought up the interesting point that James Guckert (a name that can really only be pronounced two ways -- GUCK-ert, (like "duck") or GOOK-ert. Yet Gannonguckert is sticking to this idea that he uses an alias because his name is too difficult to pronounce. Olbermann, of course, had something to say about that. I myself would pay to hear Gannonguckert say this to someone like Jim Miklaszewski of NBC News.

The sense that I get from the Cooper segment is that many of the talking heads who have been carrying the Bush Administration's water for the last four years have awakened and realizedthat they're supposed to be journalists -- and that they're pissed that this guy has gotten access they don't have.

Now, if it weren't for the fact that this guy has worked for one of the most virulently anti-gay websites in the country, I'd feel sorry for him. Sure, there's no such thing as bad publicity, but it's growing more clear by the day that James Dale Guckert has received special treatment from the White House, and people now want to know why. Now, instead of being a guy who's knocked around here and there and is now lobbing softballs at the President, hobnobbing in the corridors of power, as it were, he's arguably the most visible man in America. And he suddenly finds himself a potential embarrassment to the Administration he's so slavishly supported -- an administration that won't hesitate to crush him into powder if they feel he's leading people too close to something they don't want the press to start sniffing around.

Look, I don't want anything bad to happen to this guy. This is obviously one self-loathing mofo, and it can't be fun living inside his head. I wasn't kidding the other day when I echoed the call for him to come over to our side and repent the error of his ways. And he's really not the problem; he's just a symptom. The problem is the giant stinking fetid smell emanating from the Bush White House...and it's about damn time the press started looking into where it's coming from.