'All right. I've tossed away the books about Watergate. Let us turn from Deep Throat to male prostitution.
Yes, I've followed the 'Jeff Gannon' controversy, which every damn blog in the world is talking about right now...
Summary: 'Gannon' wrote propaganda for a small conservative website called Talon News, which turns out to be a front for good old GOPUSA. He was a regular at White House press conferences, consistently tossing softballs at Scott McClellan and the President, framing his questions in such as way as to put all Democrats in the most infernal light conceivable. He played a role in the Wilson/Plame affair, doing his best to discredit the Agency which, under Tenet, had balked at peddling neocon fantasies about Iraq. Gannon somehow got access to a classified CIA document.
On his web site, he bleated about his Christianity and repeatedly denounced gays. He also did his best to portray John Kerry as a homosexual -- a smear frequently heard in thug circles during the campaign. Former Democratic senator Tom Daschle was also a chief target. Gannon's stories amounted to barely re-written GOP press releases, even though he had (unfairly) castigated mainstream journalists for mimicking the Democratic party line.
Although the FBI is supposed to vet everyone who gets White House press credentials, 'Gannon' seems to have slipped past them on a daily basis. His name, it turns out, isn't Jeff Gannon -- it appears to be James D. Guckert. And the 'Gannon' web page is owned by the same person who owns a number of sites Republicans might consider unsavory -- sites such as HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com.
The question comes down to this: Is Jim Guckert a queer-hating born-again Christian? Or is he connected to male prostitution? ...
What can I add to this amusing but troubling controversy?
First, I think we must address the question of gay Republicans.
Not that I think all gays need to be Democrats. (I think they should be -- in the sense that everyone should be -- but they don't need to be.) But the time has come to confront a phenomenon which most liberals know about but few care to discuss (although Joe Conason makes glancing reference to it in Big Lies): A number of the most frenzied far-right propagandists -- particularly those who cater to Fundamentalists -- are themselves secretly gay. Some have come out -- but they stayed closeted for a long time, laboring on behalf of reactionary causes and working with religious zealots who spread fear stories about 'the homosexual agenda.'
Call it 'Ernst Roehm syndrome.' Or, to be a bit more charitable, 'Roy Cohn syndrome.'
Mel White -- former ghostwriter for Pat Robertson -- comes to mind. So does David Brock. So does Matt Drudge (who can always be counted on to promote the latest nonsense about recovered Biblical artifacts). I might mention Mark Foley here, although he still becomes angry when the issue of his sexuality is raised.
I probably should not mention Mel Gibson. But his recent BDSM epic, The Passion, left me convinced that he should pick up some rough trade on the streets of Hollywood instead of presenting his sexual fantasies in religious masquerade.
From a New York gay publication:
Christopher Barron, political director of the Log Cabin Republicans, recently told the New York Times, 'The perception outside the Beltway would be that if there are gay staff members, they must work on Barney Frank's or Teddy Kennedy's staff. The reality is there are gay men and women working in tons of Republican offices, in the White House and in the president's re-election campaign.'
Rumors of a one-time 'man-date' have even swirled around President Bush himself.
It is fair, I think, to ask closeted gay Republicans how they can reconcile their political orientation with the stridently anti-homosexual rhetoric of their party. Conservatives did everything in their power to convince the public that John Kerry supports gay marriage (he doesn't), and they made vile, schoolyard attempts to smear Kerry and John Edwards as lovers. Remember the fake 'metrosexual' remark Fox News attributed to Kerry?
Everyone knows that Bush depends upon the support of Fundamentalists who fear and loathe homosexuality. His party has close ties to the Christian Reconstructionist movement, which makes no secret of its plans to subject homosexuals to the death penalty.
What bizarre psychological factors can explain a Jim Guckert -- a Republican flack who brays about his Fundamentalism and fills web pages with anti-gay spew, even though he appears to be a same-sexer himself?
I cannot help wondering if the G.O.P. 'has something' on him. Perhaps he was forced to play the 'Gannon' role. In the pic on his site, he wears a dog-tag, indicating a military background. A possible clue? Providing male prostitutes to Army lads is not the safest of endeavors. Don't ask, don't tell, and for god's sake -- don't sell...
This is getting deep into the very unsavory. But there do indeed seem to be, in the Bush line, faint traces--hints, no more--of a persistent male sexual bonding, ranging from casual playing around through risk-taking and not excluding full-fledged intercourse...
The family seems steeped in sexual misdemeanor and felony. The collateral damage spreads far and wide. Jeb Bush's wife's sister, oddly enough, is married to the brother of Mary Kay Letourneau, who bore two children to a minor.
Just touching on this is dangerous territory. Indications are it has brought immediate FBI interest and government attempts to squelch even a hint of such talk. (Can you imagine Clinton worrying in the least whether he was rumored to be into guys?) The Justice Department is authorized to use all means necessary, it's said, to bottle up a rather well-established story about W. and Victor Ashe (see below). So there's a sore spot there; we just don't quite know what form it takes...
On the other hand there's that curious story (I'm working without notes but I think I have this right) of Anthony Berusca, a male Yale classmate (Bonesmate?) of George II--Dubya--who claims to have had a sexual relationship with him, and offered the curiously incongruous, and thus maybe believable, observation that young George was, at the time, a 'gentle, caring lover,' which rings true only because you wouldn't think it could be made up. 29 Yale classmates are quoted as saying he was sexually experimental during college, even gay, deeply conflicted and somewhat self-hating...according to a post by one Adam Gelber, otherwise unidentified.
Then we pass on to Bush's Bonesmate and roommate, Victor Ashe, former mayor of Knoxville, whose frequent appearance in the Bush entourage, trips to the ranch, etc, are thought to lend some credence to the strong rumor of a long-term affair between the two. In comparison with this, Laura would seem to be a cipher...if you believe the talk. Ashe is said to have been arrested twice while picking up male transvestite prostitutes in public restrooms, and is widely regarded as gay...
What does all this amount to? It seldom rises above innuendo, but there's so MUCH of it. It borders on the scurrilous, or can be portrayed that way by those anxious to pretend there's nothing there. And, indeed, real evidence is scant to nonexistent...just anecdotes purporting to be from insiders, rumors that may have originated with a security guard, etc.
But it cries out for responsible investigation by someone. Sexual tastes are nobody's business (or are they?--Kenneth Starr thought they were), unless people get harmed. Use of boy prostitutes...means underage, folks...is a crime on several counts. A president vulnerable to blackmail...that would be another problem. And it could shed light on the aura of unexplained vengefulness that hangs over Bush II's every act. A lot of taxpayer money--our money--and time is being wasted on Justice and FBI blackout of any stories remotely touching the subject. (Gee, Bill Clinton never got such white-glove treatment.) And so on and on.
It's nasty. In fact, yuck, I feel like I need to go wash after all this muckraking. But it could be very revealing. I think it needs some light shed on it, if only to help us see where this horrific president of ours, and his father, and his brothers--this Bush dynasty that has tied America in knots--is coming from.' --
cannonfire.blogspot.com
