L'affair?


Tuesday dawns with a smattering of C-SPAN phone callers and a brief discussion on CNN Inside Politics (scroll until you see "KURTZ") being the only broadcast network utterances of the radioactive name of truck painter turned male escort turned White House Correspondent Jeff Gannon.
The chatty Mr. Gannon re-re-re-surfaces in another interview with Editor & Publisher published this morning.
And what does our Jeff, so recently free with his verbal charms, have to say to E&P?
Why nothing more than he is clamming up, lawyered up and returning to the down low:

"I talked to attorneys, and I am no longer talking to anyone anymore. It doesn’t seem to clarify anything any longer. Everything I say, people start a new conspiracy theory. I am not going to answer any more questions. It seems to distract from what is really going on."

Mr. Gannon doesn’t offer his 2-day journalism seminar perspective on what it is that is “going on” though more Americans than listed on Talon’s subscription rolls would be hanging on the well-hung Gannon’s every word.
Gannon, who by our count has spoken in the past week to CNN, the loose association of FM stations that comprise NPR and Editor & Publisher (E&P states that he also spoke with “several other news organizations" but I cannot verify this), has picked, after archived and live versions of his escort web sites were published yesterday along with invoices from his web designer, a curious time to zip his well-exercised lip.
Though the sexual aspect is salacious and attention grabbing, I would urge a visit to the Mens News Daily site where Jeff’s published output is still responding to search queries.
At MND, amid Jeff’s written thoughts, one can see the clear role he played in disseminating false information throughout Campaign 2004.
For example, Jeff’s July 21, 2004 article headlined Kerry Receives Communist Endorsement:

The head of the communist movement in Nicaragua and Sandinista Leader Tomas Borge announced his support for Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) presidential bid. The endorsement is not the first friendly relationship between the Massachusetts senator and the Sandinistas.

Then there is Gannon’s February 10, 2004 Kerry Haunted by Votes to Cut Intel Funding:

The appointment of a presidential commission to investigate intelligence failures may prove troublesome to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)… Responding to a question from Talon News, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan suggested that the commission's investigation would be looking backward as well as forward…Kerry questioned the size of intelligence community…Kerry proposed a bill to slash $1 billion from the budgets of the National Foreign Intelligence Program and from Tactical Intelligence.

Of course, I have a personal favorite Gannon campaign report in his very rovian September 29, 2003 story under the lengthy headline Kerry Attacks College Republicans Over Convention Vendor’s T-Shirts:

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) issued a condemnation of the College Republican National Committee…over some T-shirts sold by a vendor at their convention in July. Kerry says the T-shirt slogans, creations of a Florida company, are racist and anti-gay…One has a photo of filmmaker Spike Lee and the message "Bring back the blacklist." Another says, "No Muslims No Terrorism." Rosie O'Donnell and her lesbian partner appear on another questioning which one is "Mr." in the relationship. A fourth shirt shows the World Trade Center after a plane crashed into it with the caption, "The Clinton Legacy”… the Kerry campaign told Talon News that the T-shirts were spotted at the College GOP convention…The CRNC fired back at Kerry…"I hope bullying college students makes Senator Kerry feel big and strong…We simply did not have the manpower to approve the contents of every book, t-shirt, and bumper sticker sold.”

I’ll betcha security-cleared White House Correspondent Jeff got a gold star for the T-shirt story.
How did he escape the Pulitzer committee?
The day is young and there is a glimmer of hope that a lone liberal cable voice will join this week’s Gannopalooza.
Keith Olbermann of MSNBC’s Countdown, in a blog entry dated yesterday and within a parenthetical remark says:

The saga of “Jeff Gannon” resurfaces some time this week, when it could turn into the political scandal of the year — more in a subsequent blog.

And, hopefully Keith, more information detailing l’affair Gannon in subsequent editions of Countdown like, maybe, tonight’s?

NOTE

The parody site whitehouse.org has a very funny Valentine’s message from the President.

Images: jeffgannon.com, CNN, NPR, C-SPAN, Editor & Publisher, whitehouse.org
- posted by Sean @ 1:07 PM