American Gigolo

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer has balls:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2005

CONTACT:
Stacey Farnen Bernards
(202) 225 – 3130

Hoyer Statement on "Jeff Gannon" Connection to Valerie Plame Leak

WASHINGTON DC – House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer released the following statement regarding revelations that a man who went by the name of “Jeff Gannon,” and who was given White House media credentials despite his lack of qualifications, was given access to classified documents which disclosed the identity of Undercover CIA Operative Valerie Plame:

“Valid questions are being raised regarding the Bush White House’s relationship with James Guckert, also known as “Jeff Gannon,” and his access to documents that revealed the identity of Undercover CIA Operative Valerie Plame.

“This issue is important from an ethical as well as from a national security standpoint. It is hard to understand why a man with little real journalism experience was given a White House press corps credential let alone access to sensitive security documents. In fact, it only raises questions as to the nature of the relationship between “Jeff Gannon” and the White House, and whether there was an alliance of interests that did not conform to ethical and security standards. President Bush’s father, President George H.W. Bush, called the disclosure of an undercover operative’s identity treason.

“This most recent revelation is only the latest in the growing list of ways that Republicans in Washington are attempting to manipulate the American people through the media and avoid accountability. When the Bush Administration had trouble selling its domestic policies, it unethically paid journalists to promote its policies under the guise of journalism. When the Ethics Committee held Majority Leader Tom DeLay accountable for improper actions last year, the Republican leadership simply removed Chairman Joel Hefley (R-CO) and other Republicans from the Committee.

“I encourage the Special Counsel looking into the Plame matter to include “Jeff Gannon’s” ties to the issue in his investigation.”

Excellent. Congressman Hoyer’s got the right angle. This is just another in a long series of egregious examples illustrative of the White House’s contempt for integrity.


Steny Hoyer, whose name is so weird, you’d think he was a Republican.

Though Hoyer doesn’t reference Gannguckerton’s email-order stud enterprise, and although a few people have already registered their discomfort with pursuing that direction, it is to some degree an integral part of the story. In addition to its obvious ability to highlight the hypocrisies of this infamously anti-gay administration, it also clarifies one potential (and increasingly likely) avenue Gannguckerton used to get into the White House Press Corps. Let’s face it—we’ve all had enough experience with sex scandals by this point to know we shouldn’t be asking how he got credentials in spite of being a gigolo, but who issued those credentials because he was one (as either a favor to a honey pot or in response to blackmail).

Still, as Hoyer’s press release so eloquently demonstrates, yesterday's expose at AMERICAblog must be viewed as part of a continuing thread, a stepping stone toward the bigger goal of discerning why a man with no discernible journalistic credentials, using an alias, carrying a $20,000 defaulted court judgment against him, and running a side business as a rent boy, was, in a highly irregular decision, issued a daily pass for two years and given access to an internal CIA memo which was summarily used to punitively leak the name of active agent Valerie Plame.

It’s not about the sex, it’s about the access.

We also must remember that Bush, Rove, et. al. don't really have it in for gays. It's just a political tool for them, and in some way, if we don't manage to make this about access to the White House, security failings, the Plame Affair, etc., and the focus remains solely on the gay hooker bit, we're playing to the homophobia of Bush's supporters every bit as much as they did to get elected. We need to make sure that this is only part of a larger story, and not the whole story.

Write to your Senators and Representatives; email people in the media; keep writing about this; keep talking about it. It’s important.

And as a final note, I’ve heard a few mumblings (usually from straight people) about feeling conflicted regarding “outing” a homosexual. That might be a fair discussion under other circumstances, but in this case, I’d like to issue the reminder that no one can “out” someone who’s got their cock and balls all over the internet advertising their services to other men. That’s about as “out” as it gets, so we can save the hand-wringing.