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Democrats ask White House for documents on conservative blogger BY ELANA SCHOR Knight Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON - (KRT) - U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the House's top Democrat for homeland security, has found an unlikely place in need of his protection: the White House press room. Thompson and four colleagues, all senior congressional Democrats, have petitioned Bush administration officials to release classified documents about James D. Guckert, a conservative activist who was a daily fixture at White House press briefings. Calling himself Jeff Gannon, Guckert asked President Bush questions at televised news conferences as a representative of Talon News Service,...

Reps. Conyers, Slaughter, Thompson, Rangel and Waxman Author Resolution of Inquiry on GannonGate Ranking Members Determined to Get Answers Resolution Will Force Cooperation, Unless Blocked by House Republicans Washington, DC - The Ranking Members for House Committees on Rules, Judiciary, Government Reform, Homeland Security and Ways and Means have authored a Resolution of Inquiry, which would require the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security to turn over all documentation regarding James Guckert’s (AKA Jeff Gannon) regular access to the White House. The resolution comes on the heels of repeated requests by Rep. Louise Slaughter and Rep. John Conyers that...

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) believes the man who helped thrust her remarks two years ago comparing Osama bin Laden to American revolutionaries into national prominence is nothing more than a "double-agent" and a "phony plant." SNIPTwo years ago Mr. Gannon, born James Guckert, used his seat in the White House press room to put a national spotlight on Miss Kaptur when he asked former press secretary Ari Fleischer why the President had not commented on the "offensive remarks by Democratic Congressman Marcy Kaptur, who likened Osama Bin Laden to our founding fathers?" The question is among dozens posed by...

WASHINGTON, 2 March 2005 — Arab bashing reached a new low in Washington last week when Ann Coulter, a loudmouthed, mean-spirited, pro-Bush columnist, decided to defend the White House press pass controversy over faux-reporter James Guckert (a.k.a. Jeff Gannon) by writing in her syndicated column: “Press passes can’t be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president.” Thomas, whose Hearst column is distributed by King Features Syndicate, is of Lebanese descent. The former United Press International reporter has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, and...

This was linked on Ace of Spades. I thought it was funny.

Neither the Jeff Gannon nor James Guckert saga is going to cause the White House Correspondents Association to seek any changes in the White House press-credentialing process. It appears that everyone involved in the process is very uncomfortable in attempting to define exactly what a "journalist" is. And that's a very good thing. WHCA President Ron Hutcheson said on February 15, "I'm not comfortable in passing judgment on who is a journalist and who isn't. My overriding view is that if I am going to make a mistake, it is going to be on letting people in rather than keeping...

NEW YORK The White House Correspondents Association announced Monday that it would not seek changes to the White House press-credentialing process, despite complaints from several members that controversial former reporter James Guckert had been able to gain the same access as any other reporter for two years. Ron Hutcheson, WHCA president and a Knight Ridder White House correspondent, said the decision occurred during Monday's meeting of the WHCA board. It was the first such meeting of the board since Guckert, who uses the name Jeff Gannon, drew attention with his partisan questions and questionable past. "The board felt like none...

"It's a psychological thing. Gannon was there, either as a plant or on his own, to deliver the larger message, to convince people that the liberal side is the losing side, that the country doesn't need the mainstream media, and that the administration message is the wave of the future......" (KRT) - The White House correspondent formerly known as Gannon has quit his job and acknowledged his real name, which is Guckert. And his employer, a conservative Web site operated by Texas Republican activists, having already erased all traces of "Gannon," announced Thursday that it was unplugging its Web site...

NBC News reporter Campbell Brown reports that Jeff Gannon's troubles with the liberal media "started when he was called on by the President at a January 26 news conference and took a swipe at Democrats" with a loaded question. In an interview, Campbell pressed Gannon with her own loaded question: "You don't deny you were writing news with a perspective, with a partisan perspective?" It was as if Brown was implying that other members of the White House press corps would never even think of approaching the news in such a manner. Brown also asked several questions about whether Gannon...

The Official Jeff Gannon Blog Post Hi, this post is all about Jeff Gannon, REAL JEFF GANNON. This post is awesome. I'm a left-wing blogger, and I can't stop thinking about Jeff Gannon. This guy is cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet. Facts: 1. Jeff Gannon is a mammal.2. Jeff Gannon makes out with right-wing extremist guys ALL the time.3. The purpose of Jeff Gannon is to flip out and ask crazy questions at press conferences. Weapons and Gear:Sexy Bald Head White House Daily Press Pass Tight leather man pants Testimonial: Jeff Gannon can make out with...

The Guckert affair I would like to thank Rob Rogers and the editors of the Post-Gazette for printing a reference to the James Guckert/Jeff Gannon affair (Feb. 22 editorial cartoon). A scandal involving a gay prostitute having free access to the White House pressroom would have been all over the media if this were 1995 instead of 2005. The printing of this cartoon gives me hope that real journalists are trying to uncover the truth in this sordid affair. Please stay on this story. The American people deserve to know the truth about the shenanigans this administration pulls on an...

Here's a piece that might irritate our fellow bloggers--especially the folks who uncovered (so to speak) Jeff Gannon's secrets. I just posted it in my "Capital Games column at www.thenation.com. (If you've already seen it, scroll down to other original items on this blog, including a posting on Howard Dean's latest dumb remark.) In brief, I'm being a worrywart about the journalistic implications of the Gannon affair, and I note that two key aspects of the story--that Gannon is a gay GOP hypocrite and that Gannon was handed classified information regarding the Wilson leak investigation--are not fully supported by the...

For the last two years, the Old Media figures at the White House thought of me as a gadfly, a right-winger with an agenda, harmless, someone to be ignored.

From the DU thread We have a "friendly" MSM reporter who is seeking Guckert news: I've established a working relationship with a reporter for a major newspaper that all would recognize. He wrote two of the first Guckert articles well before anyone else in MSM. If you're familiar with my posts, you can figure out who it is. He is willing to receive more information (nothing basic, he has already covered this aspect)... Any idea who this reporter could be? Here's a list of paineinthearse's comments at DU. Just for the sake of curiosity, could someone look through that and...

Bruised but not broken I'm baaaaaaack! If you thought I was going to slink away - then you don't know much about me. Someone still has to battle the Left and now that I've emerged from the crucible, I'm stronger than before. Despite all the pleas from the Left to go over to the 'dark side' and expose the 'corrupt Bush administration' simply isn't going to happen. My faith and my ideology are rock solid. Still, the last few weeks have been difficult for my family and my associates. To them I offer my apology and gratitude for their support....

Lawmakers: Writer May Have CIA Leak Info Thursday, February 24, 2005 WASHINGTON — Two lawmakers have sent a letter to the U.S. attorney saying a White House reporter who recently resigned following questions about his identity and background may have information vital to the investigation into who leaked a CIA operative's name to the press. Reps. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and John Conyers, D-Mich., the ranking Democrats on the House Rules Committee and House Judiciary Committee, respectively, wrote a letter to Patrick Fitzgerald (search), the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, saying the Chicago attorney's office may need to...

I hope President Bush is reading his Bible these days. If so, here's praying that he attends closely to Proverbs 21:22 -- A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust. Since Democratic leadership joins call for Gannon inquiry, and various other liberal sources keep expressing outrage that an uncredentialed and politically-motivated individual could actually break into the hallowed ranks of the White House presstitute corpse [double sic], I think the Bush administration should pull a deft Judo move. They should propose performing the exact same investigation on all WH reporters....

I just listened to Mike Gallagher spend five minutes ripping into bloggers on his radio show. He started out by talking about the Jeff Gannon scandal, calling him a "creepy guy." Gallagher went on the say that it is the "blogging atmosphere" that allowed the Gannon scandal to happen. He said that bloggers are a bunch of "geeky losers in their basements cranking out crap on a computer" and that blogging provides "power for freak-shows to harass and destroy individuals." "I am worried about this trend of legitimizing bloggers," Gallagher said. He then went on to reveal his ignorance of...

Two leaders of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee want the federal prosecutor investigating the Valeria Plame case to subpoena a personal journal of controversial White House reporter James Guckert, following Editor & Publisher's disclosure yesterday that Guckert claims he kept the journal for the past two years. "It is clear that a primary obstacle to the ... investigation is uncovering a precise chronology of when, and to whom, classified information was leaked," Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), one of those seeking the subpoena, told E&P. "The revelation by Editor & Publisher that Mr. Guckert kept contemporaneous records of his 'reporting' activities...

I had been wondering why it has taken so long for the strange saga of fake journalist Jeff Gannon to catch on. To bring you up to date, Gannon was a writer for the conservative website TalonNews.com who took part in White House press briefings for two years, despite the fact he had been deemed ineligible for a permanent press pass. Whenever called upon during the daily press gaggle, Gannon would ask "questions" that were attacks on the Bush administration's perceived opponents, rather than honest attempts to elicit information. The Washington Post noted in a story from a year ago...