Posted on 02/18/2005 4:13:55 PM PST by KidGlock
Rove- Gannon Connection?
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2005
Karl Rove's hope to become a respected policymaker will be hampered if the dirty tricks from his political past are more apparent than his desire to spread liberty around the globe.
Karl Rove took a victory lap at an SRO lunch at the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington on Thursday. After a glowing introduction by Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association, Rove proclaimed "conservatism as the dominant political creed in America," but warned Republicans not to get complacent or grow "tired and timid." He recalled the dark days when the Democrats were dominant and cautioned that that could happen again if they let down their guard. The new White House deputy chief of staff also called on conservatives to "seize the mantle of idealism."
Tired and timid are two adjectives never applied to Rove. The architect of the Bush victories in 2000 and 2004 came through the ranks of college Republicans with the late Lee Atwater, and their admitted and alleged dirty tricks are the legends many young political operatives dream of pulling off. So when Jeff Gannon, White House "reporter" for Talon "News," was unmasked last week, the leap to a possible Rove connection was unavoidable. Gannon says that he met Rove only once, at a White House Christmas party, and Gannon is kind of small potatoes for Rove at this point in his career.
But Rove's dominance of White House and Republican politics, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes for the White House press room the past two years make it hard to believe that he wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by the "boy genius." Rove, who rarely gave on-the-record interviews to the MSM (mainstream media), had time to talk to GOPUSA, which owns Talon.
GOPUSA and Talon are both owned by Bobby Eberle, a Texas Republican and business associate of conservative direct-mail guru Bruce Eberle who says that Bobby is from the "Texas branch of the Eberle clan." Bobby Eberle told The New York Times that he created Talon to build a news service with a conservative slant and "if someone were to see 'GOPUSA,' there's an instant built-in bias there." No kidding.
Some of the real reporters in the White House pressroom were apparently annoyed at Gannon's presence and his softball, partisan questions, but considered him only a minor irritant. One told me he thought of Gannon as a balance for the opinionated liberal questions of Hearst's Helen Thomas. But what Gannon was up to was not just writing opinion columns or using a different technique to get information. He was a player in Republican campaigns and his work in the South Dakota Senate race illustrates the role he played. It is also a classic example of how political operatives are using the brave new world of the Internet and the blogosphere. Gannon and Talon News appear to be mini-Drudge reports; a "news" source which partisans use to put out negative information, get the attention of the bloggers, talk radio and then the MSM in a way that mere press releases are unable to achieve.
One of Gannon's first projects was an attempt to discredit the South Dakota Argus Leader, South Dakota's major paper, and its longtime political writer, David Kranz. According to the National Journal, which reported on this last November, Gannon wrote a series of articles in the summer of 2003 alleging that Kranz, who went to college with Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle, was not only sympathetic to him but was an actual part of the Daschle campaign. These articles then got a huge amount of play on the blogs of John Lauck and Jason Van Beek, and were picked up by other conservative sites and talk radio. The paper was bombarded with messages about its bias and acknowledges that these had an impact on its coverage.
Daschle opponent John Thune's campaign manager was Dick Wadham, an old political crony of Karl Rove's; the kind of pal Rove could ask to hire his first cousin, John Wood, a few years back. Wadham put the bloggers on the campaign payroll and the symbiotic relationship between the campaign, the bloggers and "reporter" Gannon” continued. On September 29, Gannon broke the story that Daschle had claimed a special tax exemption for a house in Washington and the bloggers jumped all over it. According to a November 17 posting on South Dakota Politics – a site that Van Beek, who has become a staffer for now-Sen. Thune, has bequeathed to Lauck – "Jeff Gannon, whose reportage had a dramatic impact on the Daschle v. Thune race (his story about Sen. Daschle signing a legal document claiming to be a D.C. resident was published nearly the same day Thune began to run an ad showing Daschle saying, "I'm a D.C. resident) has written an analysis of the debacle."
Daschle aides told Roll Call, "This guy (Gannon) became the dumping ground for opposition research." The connections are so strong that there is an FEC challenge which could be a test case on the limits of the use of the Internet in federal campaigns.
Gannon also had Thune on his radio show "Jeff Gannon's Washington," and the White House correspondent for Talon became touted as the "resident D.C. expert on South Dakota politics" by the bloggers. Thune and Wadham (who has been hired by aspiring White House Republican Sen. George Allen) have become go-to guys on the use of blogs in campaigns. Thune was cited in The New York Times as introducing "Senators to the meaning of 'blogging,' explaining the basics of self-published online political commentary and arguing that it can affect public opinion."
This week Democrats, who have serious case of Rove envy, went a little nuts and started sending around information and graphic pictures of Gannon and his porn Web sites. But it is the more routine part of Gannon's life that deserves serious scrutiny. Planting or even just sanctioning a political operative in the WH press room is a dangerous precedent and Karl Rove's hope to become a respected policymaker will be hampered if the dirty tricks from his political past are more apparent than his desire to spread liberty around the globe.
HUH?? I'm not watching, just reading the thread, but that term was applied in a book that some military general wrote post GulfWarI, IIRC. That phrase was all over the place from the minute the idea of taking out Saddam became known in the public.
I didn't catch Oberman
My guess is .. what ever is being reported of at Dkos .. that's what he's talking about
He seems to get all his material from over there as far as I can tell
I believe there is a stronger link between Osama Bin Ladin, the Taliban and their representative in Washington, the whale from Taxachusetts, Ted Kennedy!
According to someone I correspond with who is an editor at a newspaper, who is a closet conservative, and who interacts with these folks on a daily basis, the modern liberal tries to shoehorn just about every square peg into one of four round holes: the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, Watergate, and more recently, Floriduh.
Plus, I see the liberal internet wankers at about the same stage of internet usage that conservatives were at eight years ago - they are consumed by conspiracies whether or not they make sense.
Last night on Hardball .. Dana with a straight face said that he knows of no one in the media/press that doesn't use their real name
Either he is a complete idiot or he's lying
I will not be watching.
No, their trying to turn it into a Rove/GOP conspiracy like Watergate "plumbers". The gay emphasis is just to inflame Christians and neutralize the morality issue.
Agreed. Whenever someone asks when the Republicans are going to "get over" Clinton, I say, "As soon as you get over Nixon".
You are correct.
"Don't forget Watergate went on for months before it got reported in the press..."
There are lots of stories for you to look up on DU. (Except for the fact that you have to be a financial supporter of the Democratic Underground to use the 'search' function.)
DU? Sorry, I'm not allowed to leave the planet.
The libs are trying to re-create our successes against the Clinton Administration. Without bothering to consider whether that model applies to the Bush Administration. So they have spent years trying to prove that Bush lied. And now they are literally salivating over the possibility that the Jeff Gannon matter will bring down the White House ... all the while oblivious to the fact that their defense of Slick during Monicagate is completely contradictory to their current attempted attacks against the Bush Admin...
I don't think she was "in studio", but to tell you the truth, Chrissy seemed kinda "put out" with her behavior---
She woulnd't answer his questions directly and he just kept asking the same question over and over until she answered. I got the feeling that he may be a little tired of her "act".
Or not, maybe he is just having a bad "sweeps month", hehehe
He is doing the same thing with the Gannon story .. he is repeating everything that's been said on the loony sites
BTW .. this info on Miss Dotti is interesting
Dotty Lynch:
"From 1972 untill 1985 I worked in politics as a pollster for Democratic candidates and liberal causes. Most notably presidential contenders George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy and Gary Hart were simpatico with my liberal values and I felt somewhat fulfilled in working through them to build a better society. I had become a very ardent feminist....
Thanx Yes,it's my blog. there is even more info on Ms. Lynch on Little Green Footballs concerning memogate etc. if you wanna check it out
The general rule of thumb in journalism is that the press is supposed to be adversarial. And they remember this every single time that there's a Republican in office.
He got that from Texas paper where some woman claimed that. Then Freepers dug up an article very early on from some MSM outlet that gave the Shock and Awe name---WELL in advance of going into Iraq. If I find the post I'll come back and link it.
Buckhead was on FreeRepublic with Mark Levin.
Mark Levin appeared on Hannity & Colmes on the Fox News Channel.
The Fox News Channel carries Your World with Neil Cavuto which regularly has guest Ben Stein.
Ben Stein was in Planes, Trains & Automobiles with...
Kevin Bacon.
Here's a CBS News story from Jan 24th 2003 that describes what "Shock and Awe" is and when it will happen.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/24/eveningnews/main537928.shtml
(follow my link to post to follow link to actual article. And looky, it's from CBS)
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