Digby distills why it matters

Here's why it's NOT about Gannonguckert's leisure-time activities:

...if this were 1998, we'd be knee deep in congressional investigations into the gay hooker ring in the White House. Every news crew in the DC area would be camped out on JimJeff's front lawn. A wild-eyed Victoria Toensing and panting Kelly Ann Fitzpatrick would be crawling up on the Hardball desk rending their silk teddies and speaking in tongues while Matthews'exploding head spun around on his shoulders.

But, it isn't 1998 and it will probably not even be mentioned. And I'm not a Republican so I don't think, as they would, that it's necessary to dig into every single White House staffer's sex life to find out who leaked a confidential memo to a gay hooker.

As a Democrat, however, if gay hookers are running around the White House I do find it somewhat frustrating that we have to put up with this shock and horror bullshit from the right wing about average Joe and Jane gay person wanting to get married and have a family. Please.

And yes, I do think that Patrick Fitzgerald's boys will probably be paying JimJeff another visit. Sadly, I think it's entirely likely that they didn't know about this until today. It is impossible to believe that the secret service and the FBI would allow a known prostitute to have access to the White House after 9/11. If they did, then our national security is in very deep shit. Come to think of it, it's also pretty scary that they didn't know. What's up with that?

I wish to God that the information Aravosis found was proof that Gannon had a copy of the memo that outed (that's an ironic word used in that context now, isn't it?) Valerie Plame. And frankly, I hate that the only way to describe Gannon's sudden emergence as a "respected journalist" in the Briefing Room is to use the "gay prostitute" theme, as if that is somehow different from him being a straight prostitute -- male OR female.

It's almost enough to make you wonder if this is some kind of Rovian psy-ops thing -- set up a guy who's not only expendable, but also gay, and involved in some shady stuff in the bargain -- so that you can trap a bunch of left-wing bloggers into what looks like gay-bashing, thereby showing what hypocrites they are. And let's face it....all of the "shocked....shocked....SHOCKED! And don't forget APPALLED!" hyperventilating sure makes it look like the left has suddenly turned into a collective Phyllis Schlafly. This way they get everything they want: They get a willing and eager right-wing shill, and if he gets caught, they can jettison him in the name of their homophobic base AND get the left to show what looks like hypocrisy on gays. It's just too perfect to be accidental.

So here at B@B, this is the only thing we want to know: How did someone with absolutely no journalistic experience, working for no pay for an online outlet that had been in existence for less than a month, who had been denied press credentials through the ordinary channels, get daily passes for TWO YEARS and become the go-to guy for Scott McClellan to call on a press briefings?

Talon News was registered as a domain in March 2003, and Gannonguckert started appearing at White House briefings in April 2003. It's pretty obvious that he was picked, whether by Bobby Eberle, a TEXAS Republican who owns GOPUSA and has ties to the Bushistas through the Texas Republican Party, or by someone at the White House, to lob softballs at press conferences. And in the absence of the payments to the likes of Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher to shill for Bush Administration policies, perhaps none of this would matter. But when admittance to the White House Press Corps used to be limited to only the most grizzled of experienced journalists, and now any schmo willing to kiss the ring can get in, something is very, very wrong.

Yes, the prostitution angle is important, only to the extent that a White House which has positioned itself as the Ultimate Arbiter of Sexual Restraint and Morality gives confidential memos to a hooker. This would apply even if the hooker in question was female and named Annie Tinkletits. And if the White House apologists think that this is simply a question of Gannonguckert's private life and therefore off limits to the issue, well, all I can say is they were the ones who decided that private lives were public property. Let's not forget what Fearless Leader said on October 13, 2003:

We're changing the culture of this country from one that has said, if it feels good, do it, and, if you've got a problem, blame somebody else, to one in which each of us understands that we are responsible for the decisions we make. ---

Karma's a bitch.