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Maureen Dowd writes today in the New York Times that the Bush White House denied her a press pass and yet gave one to James Guckert, aka Jeff Gannon.
“After getting gobsmacked by the louche sagas of Mr. Guckert and Bernard Kerik,” Dowd writes, “the White House vetters should consider adding someone with some blogging experience.”
Clearly, even at The White House, blogging can’t be ignored. Bush brags about the fact that he doesn’t read newspapers or watch TV news, but the puppet masters need to take a look at the blogosphere because we’re sure looking at them.
Guckert/Gannon is a contributor to such sites as militaryescorts.com, militaryescortsM4M.com, both of which suddenly require registration, and WorkingBoys.net http://workingboys.net/ among others. So how did he get a face2face with the commander in chief?
Dowd asks: 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.
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.
Even the Nixon White House didn’t do anything this creepy. It’s worse than hating the press. It’s an attempt to reinvent it.