Posted on 02/21/2005 12:54:12 AM PST by JohnHuang2
WASHINGTON – Disclosures that an alleged homosexual escort working for a pro-Republican website was granted access to the White House press room has led to efforts in the nation's homosexual press to "out" top-ranking Bush administration officials and GOP leaders based on uncorroborated, undocumented and unnamed sources.
In the last week, reports in New York's Gay City News and 365Gay.com and other homosexual-friendly publications and blogs have made specific allegations about individuals based exclusively on unnamed sources and rumors and playing off the sensational revelations about Jeff Gannon – by daylight a credentialed "reporter" covering the White House for two politically partisan websites, while allegedly moonlighting as a $200-an-hour male escort and purveyor of explicit websites like HotMilitaryStud.com and MilitaryEscorts.com. Those sites have since been removed from the Internet.
It turns out Jeff Gannon was a pseudonym and alter ego for Jim Guckert, the name under which Gannon allegedly posed for pictures on those sites and advertised his services. He resigned his position with Talon News and GOPUSA.com following the disclosures by bloggers.
The central target of the reports in the homosexual press is White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, a figure who regularly called on Gannon at press conferences. Most of the reports recycle one last week by Raw Story, published by John Byrne, 24, who claims to have worked as a local reporter for the Boston Globe and as a Washington bureau reporter for the McClatchy newspapers, and seems to specialize in "outing" Republican politicians.
In a report based on an unnamed source, Raw Story reported McClellan visited a homosexual bar March 19, 1995. Another anonymous source was quoted as saying McClellan regularly frequented Austin, Texas, "gay clubs." McClellan is an Austin native. His mother, Carolyn Keeton Strayhorn, former mayor of Austin is controller of the state of Texas and considered a contender for the governorship.
Raw Story "connects" Gannon and McClellan by citing a comment from the discredited reporter who said his only contact with the White House press secretary was to send him a card acknowledging his 2003 wedding.
"Outing" of reputedly closeted homosexuals, particularly those associated with the Republican Party or conservative politics, has become a favorite pastime of homosexual activists in recent years. Similarly, the "outing" of famous historical figures, from Abe Lincoln to Alexander the Great – whether or not the allegation of homosexuality is actually true – is a key activist tactic.
The unsubstantiated report in Raw Story has been picked up by numerous homosexual publications – online and off. McClellan has not commented on the reports now swirling around the Internet and in offline homosexual papers.
Homosexual activist Wayne Besen, author of "Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth," writing in Virginia's Falls Church News-Press, goes even further than Raw Story.
"The vulgar scandal (involving Gannon) has revived Washington whispers that the supposedly anti-gay Republican Party is really nothing less than a gay affirmative action program," he writes. "Glance at whose (sic) running the GOP and it looks like a Harvey Fierstein cocktail party. A few months ago, activist Mike Rogers of RawStoryQ.com revealed that GOP National Field Director Dan Gurley is gay and sought unsafe sex online. Rogers also revealed that Ken Mehlman, chair of the Republican National Committee, is gay."
Discussions about Mehlman's sexual orientation have been popular on Democratic Party websites, too, including the official Democratic National Committee website.
Besen concluded his column: "The Bush administration is the gayest in memory, although they are all quivering in the closet, or is that gyrating on the Internet?"
According to Raw Story's Byrne, Gurley acknowledged in a phone interview last September that he is "gay." In response to a later story by Byrne last November, that Gurley "solicited unprotected sex and multiple sex partners in an online profile at Gay.com," Gurley reportedly conceded that he had a profile in his America Online screenname – that same screenname as appeared in the Gay.com profile.
Attempts by WorldNetDaily to reach McClellan, Mehlman and Gurley for comment have so far proven unsuccessful.
Gannon, or Guckert, last week left his position as Washington bureau chief for Talon News, "because of the attention being paid to me."
Guckert was linked with online domain addresses suggestive of homosexual pornography. Guckert, a former resident of Wilmington, Del., told The (Wilmington) News Journal newspaper that he had registered the domain names for a client while he was working to set up a Web-hosting business.
McClellan said Guckert did not have a regular White House press pass but was cleared on a day-by-day basis to attend briefings and used his real name.
"He, like anyone else, showed that he was representing a news organization that published regularly and so he was cleared two years ago to receive daily passes just like many others are," McClellan said. "In this day and age, when you have a changing media, it's not an easy issue to decide, to try to pick and choose who is a journalist. It gets into the issue of advocacy journalism. Where do you draw the line? There are a number of people who cross that line in the briefing room."
He said he had been unaware of Guckert's affiliation with any sexually suggestive domain addresses.
Meanwhile, last night, CBS News attempted to connect Karl Rove to Guckert. In an online report by Dotty Lynch, senior political editor for CBS News, about Rove, she speculated about a link.
"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," she wrote. "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."
She continued: "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."
Gannon is now considering suing the bloggers, "liberal interest groups" and others for the "political assassination" that drove him from his reporting job, he tells Newsweek in its current edition.
I don't agree with you. Not saying anything about it is promoting acceptance of it.
Certainly it is. financial value. Christian talk radio couldn't survive without it. In many faiths, homosexuals and abortion are the ties that bind. Again it does have Christian value,........money in someones pockets.
This "explanation" of course, is mindless and is of the smarty pants set in the worst way. [I refused to use the noble term "elite" for them]
It is precisely that these letist "outers" wish to embarrrass the right wing people who are homosexual or associated with homosexuals in a witting or unwitting manner, that exposes their fundamental bad faith. They do not even grant to homosexuals the right to have their own mind and take non-leftist positions. They seek to punish the horrible transgression of not being a leftist by causing these individuals harm which they won't inflict on left wing closeted homosexuals.
I have often felt that the left often appears to have the moral compass of your sterotypical labor union thug. The dirty tricks of the left and the democrat party always have that character. Look at how they argue on TV. That blatant attempt to talk over the right wing represenative and never concede a fact or answer a direct question. If you have ever met this spirit in your daily life, you will not forget it. It is foolish to deal with them with ordinary means.
GG, it 's the Axis of Ugly. Can nothing be done?
Exactly. This tactic is part of a strategy reeling from the 2004 elections.
The 60's -70's "ardent feminists" have caused enormous damage to our country. Their influence has been felt in the MSM, the schools, the universities and also the corporate culture. The critical bad actors in this whole story are the generation of men of the 50's and 60's who responded so poorly--i.e. fecklessly-- to the feminst movement. General co-education for women inevitably led to the push against previous barriers and predispositions as to the general capacities of women. Change was inevitable and appropriate.
But the institutionalization of affirmative action for women--where preference for women was deemed to be a moral as well as political virtue, was a collapse of culure on such a scale that we are still suffering its effects. [This collapse was enacted by the men of the 1950's and 1960's] The whole notion of affirmative action, that preference is OK as long as you favor the right people, is inherently destructive of the need that merit be the ultimate standard.
Gawd, they are quite the terrifying trio, though, eh? Albright's so fat that when she goes to the restaurant, instead of a menu, they give her an estimate. I'm pretty sure Thomas's parents are dead...since if you look at her, you can't imagine them wanting to live much after the birth anyway. And Hillary...well, what does one say about the smartest woman in the world? /sarcasm
I do think our society is unraveling. I do think it is to be expected. I do think we could do better, but that's not the direction we're headed.
I don't think it's necessary to panic over it. I think we should keep our wits about us and take prudent measures to minimize any downside from it.
In due time this will be remedied by a power greater than our own.
I'll be honest in that I have mixed emotions about your premise. I'm with you 100% when it comes to persecution or trying to eliminate anyone from society. I'm not so sure that voicing the opinion that homosexuality is wrong, if done in the right way, is wrong. Personally, I wouldn't do it. And if people are yelling unsavory epitaths at the homosexuals, I think that would be wrong. Jesus didn't condemn the harlot in mean terms, but he did ask her to go and sin no more. I don't think homosexuals should go through life without anyone ever saying that they think what they are doing is wrong.
Yes, I'm sure it does grate them.
Humans on both sides of the isle are going to do shadey things. I agree. Is it RNC policy to out homosexuals? I don't think so.
I think these Republican figures who are so targeted should sue. It may set a precedent that could protect others. The actions of these Demopuke activists are unethical and scandalous.
Well, they could out Bush's daughter Barbara who likes to go to gay bars and loves gay men.
Conservatives have never asked for anything other than being against normalizing homosexual conduct PARTICULARLY when it touches on ANYTHING even loosly related to children.
Private lives stay PRIVATE. Esecially when it comes to sexual behavior. This is true of swingers, or any other fetish behavior similar to homsexual conduct.
In roman times they would be the eunachs around the politicians daughters.
I'm in agreement with that.
Why yes, I am. Governor Reagan had a homosexual cabal among his staff in Sacremento, and he fired them. Read Cannon's book, among others. He also implemented the "We Ask, Don't Join" policy within the military in 1981: it worked well and was the right thing to do.
It's Joe Farah. I'm afraid the condition is chronic. I quit taking him seriously years ago.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.