fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night...
All credit goes to Americablog for the following supreme detective work (and all questions to the mainstream media for not putting in the time and effort themselves and doing it first.) You might want to read the comments at each link, also, as they provide additional information and some timely questions, as well as NSFW comments.

But let's take this in order.

First, Americablog, in reply to a BuzzMachine article (linked) asks this: If it were proven that Gannon actually is/was a male hustler (hypothetically all the way here), would it be enough to distinguish him from bloggers, and would it be relevant to his access to the White House, the president and the CIA documents?

One thing that has been notable in the photos of Gannon/Guckert is that he always wears the same watch. In fact, that watch reminds me distinctly of a dance performace I attended years back, where one of the dancers' big shiny watch grabbed all the sparkle from the lights and took attention away from the dancing. The watch in question isn't small, and it's fairly distinctive.

Next, Gannon/Guckert goes on Michelangelo Signorile's radio show and refuses to confirm or deny the answers to questions about his life, including his connection to sites that suggest 'military M4M hustler action'. There's an audio link at this page. Americablog considers the matter here: Asked by Mike again about specific sites with his naked photos in which he was alleged to be selling sexual services to men, Gannon said he had no response. When Mike asked if that means “you will neither confirm nor deny,” Mike says Gannon replied “Yes. I’m just not going to address it.”

Americablog then left anotherhint. And then announced he had invoices.

And then this link, which is in so many ways truly the 'money shot.' Lots of NSFW photos, and links to the websites -- and Gannon/Guckert lied through his teeth to Wolf Blitzer on CNN when he said the sites he'd created were never hosted. Let's talk about those websites, for which Americablog has screenshots:

Site 1: "USMCPT, Personal Trainer, Bodyguard, Escort", a muscular (and headless) man in black boots and white socks and nothing else, and the Marine Corps shield and eagle.
Quoting Americablog:

In 1999, Paul Leddy, a Web designer and photographer, says he received an email from a man named Jeff from Wilmington, Delaware. Jeff wanted Paul to build him a new Web site for his business. Paul accepted the job, provided Jeff mailed him a check with half the money up front (Jeff had not provided a last name, and Paul wanted to make sure he was for real). Jeff sent the check, it cleared, and Paul built the site and launched it online for Jeff.

Paul didn’t think about Jeff much until last week when he heard about a breaking scandal involving a man named Jeff who owned several military escort service Web addresses. “I saw the name Jeff Gannon, knew our Jeff, saw the militarystud.com Web address, and thought ‘hmmm, everything was military, that sounds like Jeff who we did the site for.’”

Paul searched the Internet WhoIs director for militarystud.com and saw that the owner was Bedrock Corp of Wilmington, Delaware. “That’s definitely him,” Paul said. (Paul and a second source both recall Jeff paying with a check in the name of Bedrock Corp. The name stuck in their heads at the time because they asked Jeff why “Bedrock”? He replied something about the Flintstones, they recall.)

Here's a link to an archived copy of it.

Quoting Americablog re this site:

When asked what USMCPT meant, Paul said he asked Jeff that very question. The answer: United States Marine Corps, Part Time. Paul recalls Jeff telling him he was still in the Marines, but only part time. Paul also recalls Jeff being around 40 years old, even though the Web site said he was 32.

The military theme continues at USMCPT.com. The “Ammunition” section contains the description of the escort. It reads: White, 200 pounds, hair “high and tight,” chest “46’ Usually Shaved or Clipped,” and under “Weapon” it says "8 inches cut." The escort mentions that he takes clients in the Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland area, and that he prefers to “travel to your location or travel with you.”

The USMCPT home page never specifically mentions sex, though it’s clear this is not your run-of-the-mill personal trainer or bodyguard. Under a section entitled “Mission,” it says:
Ex-USMC Jock: Available for hourly, overnight, weekend or longer travel - OUT ONLY!

Personal Trainer: Safe-Sane-Strenuous-Satisfying workouts, Sports training, and competition, especially wrestling....

Big SPORTS Fan: Will go to the game with you, then take you home and....

"AGGRESIVE, VERBAL, DOMINANT TOP"
I DON'T LEAVE MARKS....ONLY IMPRESSIONS

Y'know, that doesn't sound quite like boot camp, does it? Sounds a whole lot like something more indoor, without the 10-mile marches.

Further down the page are links to other photos, NSFW. How about a photo gallery of a naked guy with that same body as on the AOL page, and that same wristwatch? And the same wrinkles on his toned abs in the same places? And no, I'm not going to describe this page further, except to say it leaves little if anything to the imagination. Quoting Americablog: If you look at the html source on this page, you will see that numerous of the photos are named “Jeff.” In several of the photos you will see Jeff wearing a distinctive silver watch with a solid black band. He likes to wear it on his left hand, slightly above the wrist joint.

Site 2: "United States Male Corps", another escort page, housed at MaleCorps.com. More photos, more links, but not a live site.

Site 3: "The Stud Files", a live site for an escort named Bulldog.

Site 4: Bulldog's own page on WorkingBoys.net. He's in Gallery 16., the site is still live, and Americablog has screencaps, including the description of Bulldog. Sites 5, 6 and 7 have more photos, the name Jeff for Bulldog, and links to more escort sites in DC and Philadelphia -- and repeat at least one of the earlier photos. And yes, that wristwatch is very visible on the Bulldog-DC site.

Quoting Americablog:

There’s much more. Paul has additional photos that Jeff provided him. Some of the photos are exact copies of those on the USMCPT.com Web site, and then some. The buck naked photo on the logo, for example. Paul provided me with the entire complete photo. The head of the man in question looks remarkably like Jeff Gannon....

Even more photos show Jeff wearing the same silver watch with a black band that Jeff Gannon is known to sport. Some show that Jeff and Jeff Gannon have the same short and pointed eyebrows, same ears, same face structure, chest structure and nipples. Same wrinkles/creases in their stomachs when they bend forward. The resemblance is astonishing.

Jeff Gannon was contacted and asked to comment on the specific allegations that he is the owner of USMCPT.com and several other profiles that offer his services as an escort. He did not respond to this request.

Why does this matter?

So in the end, why does this matter? Why does it matter that Jeff Gannon may have been a gay hooker named James Guckert with a $20,000 defaulted court judgment against him? So he somehow got a job lobbing softball questions to the White House. Big deal. If he was already a prostitute, why not be one in the White House briefing room as well?

This is the Conservative Republican Bush White House we're talking about. It's looking increasingly like they made a decision to allow a hooker to ask the President of the United States questions. They made a decision to give a man with an alias and no journalistic experience access to the West Wing of the White House on a "daily basis." They reportedly made a decision to give him - one of only six - access to documents, or information in those documents, that exposed a clandestine CIA operative. Say what you will about Monika Lewinsky - a tasteless episode, "inappropriate," whatever. Monika wasn't a gay prostitute running around the West Wing. What kind of leadership would let prostitutes roam the halls of the West Wing? What kind of war-time leadership can't find the same information that took bloggers only days to find?

None of this is by accident.

Someone had to make a decision to let all this happen. Who? Someone committed a crime in exposing Valerie Plame and now it appears a gay hooker may be right in the middle of all of it? Who?

Ultimately, it is the hypocrisy that is such a challenge to grasp in this story. This is the same White House that ran for office on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. While they are surrounded by gay hookers? While they use a gay hooker to write articles for their gay hating political base? While they use a gay hooker to destroy a political enemy? Not to mention the hypocrisy of a "reporter" who chooses to publish article after article defending the ant-gay religious-right point of view on gay civil rights issue.

Who in the White House is at the center of all of this? Who allowed this to go on in the People's House? Who committed the crime of exposing Valerie Plame? Jeff Gannon has the answers to these questions, and boy we know he loves to talk.

Americablog concludes by suggesting that Gannon/Guckert spend some time talking to Patrick Fitzgerald, the US attorney from Chicago who is investigating the leak of the documents containing Valerie Plame's identity to the public -- which almost certainly resulted in the deaths of all the agents abroad who were associated with her.

Now, let's look at the current news articles available through Googlenews:

At Editor and Publisher today, White House press secretary Scott McClellan says he 'didn't know Guckert used a fake name for nearly two years.' McClellan said he was also unaware that Talon News was tied to the Texas Republican Party (apparently he never noticed the site name was GOPUSA.com) and said he thought Bush had never met Bobby Eberle, owner of GOPUSA. Eberle is a Texas Republican activist and was a delegate to the 2002 Republican Convention. (How likely is it that Bush would *not* have met every Texas Republican delegate?) McClellan was also apparently unware of Guckert's links to sex sites, and had no opinion on the effect that might/should/would have had on him getting credentials. (Question to the reader of this LJ: how much of this denial and non-denial denial sounds to you like CJ Cregg caught on a hot seat and scrambling for credibility?)

This is especially interesting, since an earlier E & P story that provided an overview of the situation included Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post saying that McClellan had told him Bush didn't know who Gannon was when he called on him during the press conference. (To which I say bullshit. Televised press conferences are scripted and arranged, and no way would this president, who needs a wire prompting him in order to get through the debates, ever take a chance on being embarrassed in public by an unknown reporter asking a question for which he might be unprepared.) Further, in this E & P story, McClellan says he knew Gannon was Guckert, and it was no big deal. Inconsistent much?

Buzzflash points out Aaron Brown's inconsistency in going after Scott Ritter's personal life, but criticizing John Aravoisis (Americablog) for looking into Guckert's business life and credentials. How does Aaron Brown get away with saying that a story about "a fake reporter with a fake name and no credentials who has access to White House press conferences and classified memos has 'a kind of so what quality'." My question
to Aaron Brown, which certainly will go unanswered: By what definition do you call *yourself* a journalist, if you shrug off inquiries into the truth of a dubious political situation?

The Raw Story has updated its information on the Gannon/Guckert story, and adds something more: a personal link between Gannon/Guckert and McClellan close enough that Gannon sent McClellan a wedding card when the latter was married.
Some question whether Gannon may have leveraged a personal intimate relationship with someone at the White House to gain access to President Bush. Guckert also says he was given access to an internal memorandum which named then-covert CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Such leveraging of personal relationships have seen increased scrutiny after the resignation of former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey, who admitted to having an affair with a male staff member.

Sources have intimated possible relationships with members of the White House staff.

RAW STORY has been told that the White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan visited a gay bar in Austin, Texas, on March 19, 1995. The date was placed exactly as a local memorial service was held on the same day.

The source, who would only comment on condition of anonymity, reserved comment on whether McClellan was actually gay, but said he was frequently seen at gay clubs. Another source also confirmed this account.

“He was often seen in gay clubs in Austin, Texas and was comfortable being there,” the Texan said. “He’s been seen in places that normal people who are looking for heterosexual relationships are not seen alone.”

According to a White House transcript, McClellan is married, and Gannon sent the press secretary a wedding card. The White House, however, declined to comment.

“He was the mayor's son in town, everybody knew who he was,” the source added, referring to McClellan’s mother Carole Keeton Strayhorn.

At press time, a message for Strayhorn, controller for the state of Texas has gone unanswered. Strayhorn is considered a hot future prospect for the Texas governor’s mansion.

Guckert joined the White House press corps under former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. McClellan was Fleischer’s deputy at the time.

Several calls placed to the White House and McClellan’s office today were not returned. The White House transferred the call to various offices and took detailed accounts of the information in this story, but refused to comment.


Conspiracy Planet reviews most of what's above in an article titled Jeff Gannon and other gay Republicans. (Karl Rove in a thong? ew. Not going there.)

The Post, in a press review column, manages to confuse the issues while dismissing them and slamming bloggers at the same time.

And was Guckert subpoenaed by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the Plame case?

"Guckert said that contrary to many press reports, he was never subpoenaed by the special prosecutor and has never testified before a grand jury in the case. But he said he was interviewed by two FBI agents in his home for about 90 minutes last year," Strupp writes.

So, in fact, the only thing we know for certain is that Fitzgerald subpoenaed the White House for records about Guckert/Gannon -- like I said in my March 10 column, almost a year ago.

Well, not quite.
That story cites this conservative blog that disses Kos, sneers at bloggers' efforts and points out Gannon's likely non-credibility. Personally, this is where I'd say 'ho-hum.'

The Washington Dispatch calls the Gannon affair a disgrace to Internet publications (by which I understand him to mean Talon News, not the bloggers.

The Conservative News insists that Talon News had no connection to the Republican Party. Oh? And I suppose having Talon hosted by GOPUSA is simply a coincidence? This is from the mis-named Accuracy in Media site -- which in itself is a Republican stronghold and mouthpiece. Is the White House's strategy for the Gannon/Guckert matter being served by having arch-Republican sites diss bloggers and liberals? Here's another from the same site. The neoCon view of Gannon/Guckert concentrates on the idea that "liberals" are "invading Gannon's private life" and supposedly making harassing phone calls to his aged mother. Well, I haven't called her. Have you? Has anyone you know? Also, consider the quotes from Eberle, who, as mentioned above, is a member of the Texas Republican Party but who says that GOPUSA has "no connection with the Republican Party"? That horse won't run, kid.

Media matters for America excerpts some of Gannon's stories that are no longer online at Talon News.

OpEd News.com says Jeff/Jim Gannon/Guckert Still Does Not Get It Well, OpEd News gets it completely. Read on:

One would think that being exposed to the world as a liar and a shill, and potentially having some tasteless website issues, would be enough to make someone go away quietly. One day after the resignation of the fake reporter from the fake news agency, Jeff/Jim Gannon/Guckert is still pretending that somehow HE is the victim in this situation.

In speaking to The News Journal, the shamed faux-journalist who went by the fake name of Jeff Gannon had this to say about his resignation:

"I asked a question at a White House press briefing and this is what happened to me. If this is what happens to me, what reporter is safe?"

Jeff, or Jim, or whatever the hell you are calling yourself today, you still do not get it. Let me try it slowly for you. YOU NEVER WERE A REPORTER. Now, let that sink in for a second, Jeff/Jim.

Ok now, this is the question you are referring to, which you posed to President Bush:

"Thank you. Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. [Senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid [D-NV] was talking about soup lines. And [Senator] Hillary Clinton [D-NY] was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you've said you are going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

Now, Jeff/Jim, I will forgive you not realizing this is not a journalistic question, since you were never actually a reporter. The problem with this "question" is that it had no intrinsic value at all. It was not framed to elicit any information, but to PANDER to the President and his administration. The word for this is PROPAGANDA. Are you getting this yet Jeff/Jim? To make matters worse, the details in your fake question were not even true. They were based on a joke made by Rush Limbaugh. So, you heard a joke Rush made, assumed it was true, never bothered to check the veracity of the quotes, and then presented it to the President in a news conference, you never should have been at. You still with me Jeff/Jim?

Jeff/Jim was apparently not done with the self-pity as he continued, “there are people out there who will turn people's lives inside out. They tried to intimidate me, punish me. Then they tried to embarrass me, and they've done a pretty good job of that." Specifically here, Jeff/Jim is referring to the fact that bloggers had successfully debunked most of the lies that Jeff/Jim had based his life on and had uncovered some problematic websites affiliated with Jeff/Jim.

Unfortunately, Jeff/Jim still is not getting it. It was Jeff/Jim that lied on his resume on the Talon News site, claiming to “graduate” from what ended up being a two-day seminar, which I might add is the ONLY journalistic training Jeff/Jim had. It is not other people that have embarrassed him, if he chose to call himself a Christian while opening websites called “hotmilitarystud.com.” Now, I understand that Jeff/Jim is still trying to deflect that charge but it does not explain the fetching picture of Jeff/Jim in his underwear on his AOL homepage.

I choose to stay clear of these tawdry topics because there is so much wrong with the real story and there is only one real story here. That is that for the past few years a man with a fake name, working for a fake news agency, infiltrated the White House Press Pool. That fake reporter then was relied upon by Scott McClellan and even George W. Bush in press conferences, where he would serve up the most inane, partisan, softball questions imaginable that had ZERO journalistic integrity and value. This same fake reporter may have got his hands on a secret internal CIA memo that he mentioned in an interview he had with Valerie Plame's husband, former ambassador and administration critic Joseph Wilson. This is the only story. This is a serious story. This is a story that needs REAL journalism to get to the bottom of.

Yesterday there were apologists out to support this false journalist. Howard Kurtz of CNN actually had the gall to suggest that the bloggers had gone too far. As such, he exposed himself as not being a real journalist. Wolf Blitzer asked him if there was any connection between Jeff/Jim and the White House and Kurtz responded, “No evidence whatsoever”. Kurtz’s source? Scott McClellan and the White House. Bang up job of reporting there Howie, maybe it is time for us to check your resume too.

There is only one story here and that is the continuing unraveling of the propaganda machine utilized by this administration. It is not “Gannongate”, because Jeff/Jim does not deserve that much attention. It is about Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher, and Michael McManus. It is about an administration that thinks it can massage the truth, frame the truth, buy the truth or create the truth. It is about a President that thinks that it is ok to have Karl Rove give an exclusive interview to Sean Hannity so he can pimp the social security scam, and call it journalism. It is the abhorrent practice this administration has in assuming that the American people are just too plain stupid to realize that they are being manipulated and lied to.... 

So let's cut to the chase here. There is evidence that Gannon/Guckert was linked in some way to McClellan in Texas -- enough to send him a card at his wedding. There is reasonable evidence that Gannon/Guckert apparently was at some point cruising for paying dates, to put it politely, and there are receipts for building the websites that did the advertising for said cruising. The White House press secretary is scrambling to cover his tracks in a way that resembles a cat with a mess on the rug. Other Administration gurus, such as Rove, Cheney, the GOP party chair, and the Religious Right leaders such as James Dobson, Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell, have not said a word about this. Not one word.

What does that tell you?