FRIEND OF SCOTTY'S? Gannon/Guckert
James Guckert, who prefers the
nom de plume of
Jeff Gannon, is the ex-hooker and sometime White House "reporter " who got rejected for press credentials by Congress but somehow enjoyed extraordinary access to the Bush White House, where he was given daily passes to enter the White House press center on more than 200 occasions. Secret Service records released after a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by Reps.
Louise Slaughter and
John Conyers showed that
Guckert appeared at the White House on 24 days when no press briefings occurred; on 14 occasions, his entry or exit time was missing from the logs, and on one day, he actually checked in twice but never checked out.
The big question (which no Washington reporter has ever bothered to investigate) has always been: Who was Guckert's very special White House friend who provided the gay blade with such remarkable access? Today, for the first time, Guckert offered an explanation.
"I can say without fear of contradiction, that I knew [ex White House press secretary] Scott [McClellan] better than any other White House correspondent or Washington reporter," Guckert wrote on his blog.
That seems to solve several mysteries.
RELATED: Bush Aide: Bush Administration Not As Perfect As You Thought
By
Charles Kaiser
05/29/08 2:39 PM
Related:
Charles Kaiser, Full Court Press, Jeff Gannon, Politics, Scott McClellan